Dusting off my superpowers

For the most part, we don't run around in tights.

Most of us don't have a cape. We're not able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Heck, the older I get the more challenging crawling out of bed gets day after day.

But there are most definitely heroes that walk amongst us. They are first responders that help people in need in dangerous situations. They are health-care workers who keep us alive. They are community volunteers that feed the hungry. They are people battling illnesses and not giving up. They are parents doing the best they can to raise their kids in challenging circumstances.

I could go on. It's a very, very long list.

Despite very personal family challenges I've had to push through, and still do, I don't consider myself extraordinary.

I'm just a woman, a mother, and a daughter doing her best.

When my kids were younger, however, I truly believe they thought I had superpowers.

At times they would mumble so low or incoherently when I asked them a question that I needed the bionic hearing that Jamie Sommers to carry on a conversation.

And like Peter Parker, often my Spidey senses were tingling. Whenever one of my kids randomly told me out of the blue, “Mom, I love you,” there was a pretty good chance they were up to something, or they wanted something.

They also thought then – and sometimes still do – that I could fulfill their requests in milliseconds.

I can remember many, many years ago sitting at my desk in the newsroom. My phone rang. The conversation went like this.

Oldest child at soccer practice: “Mom, can you bring me a Gatorade?”

Me: “Yes, but . . .”

Click.

That was him hanging up on me. Had he let me finish my sentence I would have said, “Yes, but I'm at work so I can't leave this second.”

About five minutes later as I was entering a store my phone rang again.

“Are you here?”

"Ummm, I had to go somewhere to buy the Gatorade,” I pointed out, seeing where I didn't have the ability to make it magically appear.

Just let me throw the springs on my feet and I'll bounce right over. I'll even leap over one or two buildings on my way.

Still, in my younger mom days, I suppose you could say I did possess superpowers.

Healing or regeneration? I could make boo boos go away with a kiss.

Time travel? I'd been known to have traveled from one hockey game in Clare to another one in Bridgewater on the same day, arriving early at both rinks.

Invisibility? Sometimes it seemed like I was invisible when I arrived somewhere to pick up my kids and they avoided eye contact with me because they weren't ready to go home.

Shrinking? During any given hockey season I watched my bank account shrink.

Nowadays I'd settle for more mundane superpowers, like the ability to crouch down without having to ask someone for help in getting back up. Or the ability to sneeze without feeling like I've gone to the bathroom at the same time.

Cloning still tops the list of powers I'd find useful, particularly when trying to do everything at once while needing to be everywhere at once.

I think I'll just stick with my favourite superpower – the ability to make others smile. What I love most about this superpower is so many other people possess it and share it daily as well.

Plus, you don't need tights or a cape.