What is your child superpower?

Isn't this side-by-side photo of myself and my kiddo the cutest thing ever! I can't believe how similar we look around the same age. I often think about what makes me uniquely me, and her uniquely her! 

I grew up in a small town in rural Minnesota. A daughter to a set of hard-working parents who loved my brother and me fiercely and always told me I could be anything I wanted to be in this world. I am blessed beyond measure to have parents that love me and supported me through all the twists and turns of life. Parents that were going to do everything they could to help me shine bright in this world. 

I am deeply grateful for being raised in a household of love. I know that isn’t the story for everyone, and I do know the profound impact that had on my life. I grew up always wanting to make my parents proud. I hope that my daughter will someday feel the same way about her parents (check out that side-by-side of myself and her in that photo at about the same age!). 

My mother said that I came out of the womb talking and full of adventure, joy, love and positivity. I would talk in paragraphs to just about anyone who would listen. Complete strangers were my best friends. I was a little bambino out in the wild ready to seize the day! I had blue eyes, lots of blond hair and was the apple of my dad’s eye. When I was born in the hospital my dad brought a dozen roses every day for a week. He would pick them from our rose garden on the farm. By the time my mom was given the all-clear to take me home, they had to give them away to the nurses and hospital staff. I came into this world being loved and full of self-love too. 

My brother and I spent the majority of our time as kids playing outside, flooding the sandbox, and making up the most elaborate storylines. My cousin Tami would spend many days with us on our grandparent's farm. We would play Russian spies in the USA or American spies in Russia, depending on the day. Our imaginations were as elaborate and creative as the expanse of space and time. The cows were soldiers, the trees were hideouts and safe houses and the tractors were army tanks. No mission went off without elaborate plans laid out in sticks and rocks.    

I loved my childhood for the perfection that it was. I am eternally grateful to my parents for raising me in a household of love and empowerment. But let me tell you, I was also on a mission to find my own way and march to the beat of my own drum. I am certain my intense streak of independence gave my poor mom a heart attack or two growing up. I remember packing a little suitcase and running away to Dairy Queen in the little town of Janesville Minnesota. I was able to get a free ice cream out of it, and an adventure of a lifetime that jumpstarted my desire to see the world. I told the nice man at Dairy Queen my full name, and he looked us up in the phone book and called my poor mom to come and get me. If my daughter Zara had done that to me I am certain I would have handled it less gracefully than my lovely mother! 

As a three-year-old, I hadn’t developed this notion of a limiting belief yet. I was confident, invincible and ready to take on the challenges the world was going to throw my way. I hadn’t started to doubt myself or think I was “less than” for any reason at all. I was a child of God and full of love and light. I hadn’t learned that the world can be a cruel place or that I was supposed to believe I was anything less than amazing.   

I remember being asked the favorite question every adult asks a child, what do you want to be when you grow up? I distinctly remember answering that I was going to be the first woman president of the United States of America. I also remember my mother explaining to me that there would be a woman president long before I was the ripe old age of 35 and eligible for the job. I didn’t have to see an example of something to believe I was capable of doing it. I just knew deep down inside me that I was going to do something great with my life. 

So what the heck happens to us between the age of 3 and adulthood? Why do we take so many left turns on this road to self-love and self-discovery? As I reflect back on my life I am reminded that sometimes we have to go left in order to know the road comes back to the right again. I believe each internal and external challenge we face is designed to help us become closer to our authentic selves. 

I also think it is powerful when we lean into our child superpowers and use them to help us find our way in life. We are each unique souls, no one in the world is exactly the same. When I am struggling or having a hard time in a situation, I try to lean into my child superpowers to help me get through them. I lean into my ability to create deep relationships, I lean into my positivity and I lean into my sense of adventure and walking down the path of the unknown with more excitement and less fear. That path is leading me closer to my soul's purpose, so I walk down it with courage, knowing it is uniquely designed just for me.    

Though I don’t aspire to the role of Commander and Chief today, I do aspire to live my life with purpose, love and gratitude. 

Love and Light my friends,

Kara