What would be your superpower?

In a child's world, adults know the answers.  Our kids ask us questions...and we always know the answers, or at the very least, toss off  a response for that moment. 

One day, I was stumped...by a very simple question asked by my then eight-year old son.

"Mom, if you could have a superpower, what would it be?"   From the serious look on his face and tone of his voice, this question was an important one.  He had been mulling this over for quite some time.

Frankly, I was stumped.

I realized that my adult brain rewired itself to adeptly handle mountains of details - from computer passwords to business deadlines to the release date for the next Harry Potter book - that somewhere along the way...my childlike imagination needed rebooting.

"Well, I guess flying would be cool...but being invisible has its advantages," I slowly began.   He quickly flipped through other options..running at lightning speed, reading other people's thoughts, scanning with x-ray eyes.

Today, I told this story to a colleague, who chuckled.  Then asked, "So what did you finally answer?  What was your superpower?"

I am still stumped...still rewiring my brain to let it wildly imagine.

May be it's time to lug out the packed away Legos and just play for a while. 

How did you get where you are now?

The question reminds me of that old joke...How do you get to Carnegie Hall?  Practice, baby, practice.  Haha.

But what I'm wondering about today are those conscious, creative thoughts that brought you to where you are today -- at this job, with these friends, raising this family, pursuing that passion.  Perhaps creativity wasn't the instigator - maybe you're just bumbling along, like the rest of humanity.

Yet how can we spark creative thoughts that can open the doors to what we want - for ourselves, our society, our world.

One creative thinker who deserves a "shout out" is the first follower on this blog - Lori McManus.  Many years ago, I hired her to work with me at New York City's glorious (and unfinished) Cathedral of St. John the Divine. 

Sure, she was bright, eager, and personable - all necessary qualifications.  But so were all the other candidates.  What set Lori  apart from the pack -- and I clearly remember thinking this at the time -- was her big, bold, creative move to uproot from the Midwest, leave family and friends, and create a radically different life in the Big Apple.  Wow - that took courage. Not sure I would have done it. Congratulations, you're hired girl!

Hmmmm...maybe creativity and courage go hand-in-hand.

What do you think about?

If you took all the thoughts that you had in a week and separated them into piles -- as if you were cleaning out a closet or a garage -- you'd probably be surprised at the results.  Big piles of thoughts would stack up about work, family, money, memories, worries for the future, kids, bills, to do lists, didn't do lists, and on and on.  But would there be a pile for ideas? Just ideas? Crazy ones, small ones, brilliant ones, why didn't I think of that before ones, and what about secret ones. Probably not.  So let's start stacking that pile.