Feels like we're gathering some momentum...
Two weeks ago I was at the dentist signing in at reception when I looked up to see this:
One of the ladies in the reception area was kind enough to let me take a picture of the top half of her Wonder Woman t-shirt. In hindsight it would have been better to get the whole thing but I was thinking "WONDER" at the time not "WONDER WOMAN", plus it was an awkward angle with a high reception counter. After taking the snap I said:
"Thank you. It's not every day I get to meet a superhero."
I also said I'd write a blog post around this and email it to her, but I've gone one better, I have connected with someone far more qualified on the subject who kindly agreed to write something.
So thank you for the piece Mand, I've no idea what I'd have written, and thank you Ms Keska for the creative spark :)
On Being A Superhero by Mandy Brewster
The following was inspired by David who passed the inspiration baton to me...
What does it mean to be “Superhuman”? Or indeed in the context of myself, “Wonder Woman”?
I've had many experiences in my past and sometimes present reality where I SO wished I was superhuman or maybe in my
darker moments, wished I had the “hierarchical power” to blow my opponents out
of the water! Oh man! Do I struggle with the latter at times!
As a child I was influenced by our comic book characters,
i.e. “Wonder Woman”, “Superman, a fairytale prince’ (Yes I wrote that right,
I never at that point, resonated with the helpless princess archetype)... I
wanted to be the defender and protector of “rights” I wanted to be noble and
great and kind! I also wanted to be “The One” (tut) the first one to do
something, if somebody else got there first, I kinda lost interest...
This in some ways led to a really poor self-belief system, one that believed I would never make it and nobody would ever want me. As I travelled along my path towards transcendence and adulthood, my childhood fantasies turned into a great escape from the reality of situations I found myself in. This life partner that controlled everything I did through fear, this man that expected so much from me. I often found myself daydreaming of a time when I would stand up to him and use super human powers to protect myself and my children; he would be so put in his place! He would never harm us again!
This of course didn’t happen, instead I developed ways to
survive that involved a hell of a lot of energy, I kept a sparkling clean
caravan, brought up 5 young children (less than 6 years between them) and 1 big
one with very little technology available. I had to fetch water, wash and cook
outside over the fire, work hard all day to bring home the bacon, and be the
“perfect” woman for him. There were times I arose at 4am and retired at 12.00
midnight, during the cherry-picking season this would last for around 8 weeks
or so which culminated one extra long year, in me wearing a surgical collar as
I relaxed somewhat after a very strenuous season... I had achieved
“superhuman” feats in the previous 10 weeks and my body was making me take a
well-earned rest!
Later on after I executed my escape and begun my spiritual
journey, I was lead project worker at a mental health drop-in and one of the
members had a massive epileptic fit. He was also attempting to run out of the
building onto the main road, 7 staff members and volunteers were attempting to
restrain him, they all ended up on the floor on top of him. Within seconds he
had dispatched all of them and was running towards me. Without thinking, I leapt
into action, got him in a bear hug from behind and held him, slowly circling
round and round as he struggled and I just went round and round with him. We
stayed like that for at least 5 minutes until he calmed down and then the
ambulance arrived. The paramedic came in and told me off for holding him! God I
wanted to punch her on the nose! During the time I was holding him, I felt
incredibly calm, I could feel him struggling and his desire to get away begin
to dissolve, but I was at no time under any strain to hold him????
I heard and saw
people gasping with disbelief about what was happening and remarking stuff like
“She’s bloody holding him on her own” “She must have had her Weetabix for
breakfast”.... I sat in disbelief myself after getting over wanting to punch
the paramedic in the face that is J
how the hell did I do that? I couldn’t get over how I had managed it. I knew I
was strong, I had spent most of my life working physically hard, but that
defied logic, and most of the seven trying to hold him originally were bigger
than me. I scratched my head and got on with the day...
A short while later, my daughter had escaped from an abusive
partner and had come back home to me. I was fast asleep on her first night home
when the door burst open, “Mum” she screamed, “he’s breaking in”! Without a
thought, I leapt into action, meeting him at the top of the stairs, him like a
big hairy gorilla of a man and me with me ‘jamas on, make-up all over my face
and hair that looked like a bloody haystack explosion (It had been a good night
previously) I placed a hand on each side of the wall and told him to get out!
He ran at me, Jack Daniels bottle in hand and attempted to wrestle me out of
the way, surprisingly getting nowhere! His Jack Daniels fell on the mezzanine
level floor as he looked at me aghast, whilst standing back and searching in
his pocket saying: “You're f**king strong”...
I never lost a moment as I simultaneously kicked his bottle around the corner into the loo, told my daughter to phone the police, informed him that not only was I strong but I was also not an orphan! I told him to get out because he was also disqualified from driving and the police were on their way. Off he went, just like that! He texted me later to ask for his bottle, so I left it on the porch for him to pick up, minus a pint of its contents, which I must say, was a welcome gift to somebody trying to get back to sleep after that little episode!
It wasn’t until the next morning that the reality of the situation hit me! I had held off a great big brute of a man with no effort at all Huh! It had happened again, I began to think it must be the Angels, I had not felt any adrenaline rush or comedown after, it had just happened and I was serenely calm, I explored this further...
During the course of my teaching/learning journey, I
discovered that, if you detach from the outcome, the universe works like magic
through you. I use that concept when teaching in groups, I just do “Mandy”, of
course I write and plan the lesson, but I just deliver it as “Mandy” whatever
happens or is said, happens! I hold a vision of groups developing a human
connection to each other, I remind myself of the only rule I consider
unbreakable, “First do no harm” and off we go!
I have often been called really lovely and sometimes surprising nicknames by these groups all relating in some ways to super human archetypes. It causes some struggles with my ego I can tell you, but it also affirms to me, that I have become the very thing I visualized as a child...
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So what does it mean to be super human? Well considering my experiences here, I would say that we are all superhuman, we just get lost in the desire to control what that means and how we have to be on a human level and what we “think” we can accomplish... Looking back on my journey, I can testify to quite a few superhuman feats on many levels, i.e. overstretched mother/wife/slave/strong woman/hero etc. They all happened at times when I did not have a moment to think and rationalize the situation I was about to go into.
If I had given it a thought I would not have believed I was capable of doing looking after so many kids. If I had thought about it I would not have believed that I could hold the drop-in member, if I had given it a thought, I would not have confronted the gorilla on the stairs especially as I found out later that he was searching for his knife that he usually kept in his pocket but had changed his trousers earlier for a funeral.
If I had given it a thought I would not have believed I was capable of doing looking after so many kids. If I had thought about it I would not have believed that I could hold the drop-in member, if I had given it a thought, I would not have confronted the gorilla on the stairs especially as I found out later that he was searching for his knife that he usually kept in his pocket but had changed his trousers earlier for a funeral.
It is at those times
when all fears stop and you are in the moment, living now!
I realise nowadays that we all have the power within us; we've just got to look back, reframe the past, and develop from there!
We are all superhuman if we choose to be, when we live in the now we can handle anything!
I wonder what else we are capable of?
...ᒪᓐᑎ ܡܐܢܕܝ
"We are the hero of our own story."
Mary McCarthy
Mary McCarthy
Have fun out there.
Dx
Dx
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