Stay gentle, keep the eyes of a child
Don’t harden your heart or your hands

Songwriters: Brandi Carlile / Phil Hanseroth / Tim Hanseroth
Warner/Chapell Music

Last Thursday our family gathered for Thanksgiving while two superheroes ran among us with their capes flowing ever so gracefully behind them.

The good intention of these heroes was obvious. They flew without care and appeared to understand the stakes involved: Living in the moment, living for today, living with passion and exuberance. Because they are children, they dwell in the land of the possible and the playful. May we join them as often as possible. May we learn from them.

Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky

Don’t fall on me 

Songwriters: Bill Berry / Michael Mills / Michael Stipe / Peter Buck [REM] © Universal Music Publishing Group

Flying above the ordinary world, these heroes do not become trapped in their heads, ruminating about their past and future. As every child–and feline or canine companion–can show us, the present is the only actionable time period for eating, playing, jumping, running, and living. We adults are heavy with burdens and doubts and sadness that have piled so high that we feel incapable of flight, of being ourselves. It is for the superheroes, the children, to help us remember the sky and the broad firmament of now.

Don’t let ’em lower your shoulders
Love ’em more while they try
Grow younger while you’re growin’ older
Be amazed by the sky

Songwriters: Brandi Carlile / Phil Hanseroth / Tim Hanseroth
Warner/Chapell Music

Fighting bad guys can be difficult even for superheroes. There are many people with their own agendas selfishly ready to shoot down the simple pleasures of being yourself, singing your song, shining your light, loving who you wish to love, and just enjoying the natural world around you. Keeping your chin up and back straight are tough when so many people are filled with anger and hate. But the antidote of child-like wonder is a powerful force for good in this world.

Darling, stay wild if you can (if you can)
The girl with the world in her hands (in her hands)

Songwriters: Brandi Carlile / Phil Hanseroth / Tim Hanseroth
Warner/Chapell Music

Staying wild does not mean lowering yourself to engage the haters and their enablers. No, the word wild means: “living or growing in the natural environment; not domesticated.“

May the superheroes–and the rest of us–not be tamed by the forces of darkness and jealousy that weigh down so many. As the Holocaust survivor and groundbreaking Austrian philosopher Viktor Frankl learned, the Nazis could enslave his body, but they could not enslave his mind. To rise above despair, he found, ” . . . it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.” May we see that even as we grow taller and older, seeking natural beauty and making a difference in the lives of others is the right choice for our own happiness as well as the people around us.

The ripples of love and kindness may seem small, but they flow outward inexorably. In other words, they are impossible to stop.

Stay gentle, stay gentle
The most powerful thing you can do
Oh, gentle, unbreakable you

Songwriters: Brandi Carlile / Phil Hanseroth / Tim Hanseroth
Warner/Chapell Music

As all true superheroes know, you must know your own strength to lift up the ones who are at risk of falling. Believe in yourself, gentle heroes: You who are flexible, resilient, and strong. Float like a feather on the wind, as you teach the ways of kindness and gratitude, even to those who do not understand you.

May you fly with the clouds, may you dance, may you sing, may you be passionate, may you love, and may you teach others how to live the now with you.

~ Anna – 11-30-2022