Monday

The Secret to True Power (hint: it has something to do with Spiderman)

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

My son and I love the movie Into the Spiderverse. In case you don’t know, it’s the Spiderman movie that came out a couple of years ago about Miles Morales, a young kid from the Bronx who becomes the new Spiderman. Like most hero’s journeys, he starts out not believing in himself or knowing his own power and gets kicked down a bunch of times. A few times a week we play the theme song from the end when he finally discovers his power. I watch how excited my son gets by this idea of finding your power and finally being able to do what you were born to do. He leaps off stools and runs around the room expressing his full aliveness. I love it.

So many movies have this theme of the main character searching for their power and then realizing that it was within them all along. Disney movies are a perfect example of this (yes I have a five year old): Lion King, Frozen, Moana…I’m sure there’s more. This trajectory is powerful for us (I always cry, don’t you?) because it resonates with our own deepest desire and understanding of life’s purpose: discovering that our power was within us all along and letting that shine into the world.

But what is power, true power  and where does it come from? We often think of power over something or owning lots of stuff. If you ask someone to name a powerful person in the world they will usually think of a politician or CEO or dictator. But that’s not the power I’m referring to, and actually just because one has relative power does not give them actual power. As Disney has taught us, real power comes from within and is our inherent birthright. So the real question becomes, How will I discover and step into my power? Continue…