What is your super power?

This thought from an unknown author:

No one is you and that is your super power.

Photo by Derek Thomson on Unsplash

I’m still hanging out at bro- and sis-in-law’s place. Mostly writing. And walking the rutted trails.

A herd of wild turkeys—three toms and eight hens—shows up every morning at first light, gobbling to wake the dead. (And you thought roosters were the only big birds that welcome in a new day with noisy energy.)

Photo: Marlys

Some days the turkeys serve as my alarm clock. Other days I’m up before them, lighting a fire to chase away the morning chill, waiting for the dawn to backlight the high hills across the valley.

Faithful to their assignment in life, the gobblers start their high-pitched gleefulness right around first light. Every morning. Faithfully.

Which caused me to think about our assignments in life.

Things like, healing people, nurturing our families, figuring out how to keep bridges suspended or planes flying, growing fields of food, rescuing horses, getting numbers to add up or teens to open up, writing music, discovering new planets, creating jobs for people, offering wise counsel to troubled marriages, caring for the dying.

Oftentimes we have more than one destiny, depending on the seasons of our lives.

Once upon a time, I was a stay-at-home mom. I loved being the one to cheer my children on as they drooled their first grins, and stumbled over their first steps, and attempted their first somersaults.

And I loved being the wife of a good man and making our home an inviting place — not just for my husband and our children, but our children’s friends and extended family and guests.

I’m no longer that same young woman. My husband, Gary, died of cancer three-and-a-half years ago. My children are married and building lives of their own.

These days are now occupied with writing and speaking, volunteer work, hiking and snow-shoeing and paddling, travel, and spending time with family.

What if each of us had a destiny? And what if we could love our life’s work? And what if that calling could energize us enough to exclaim at first light of each day?

We do. We can. It could.

I appreciate that God created each of us with a specific destiny in mind. And what He calls us to do is something we’ll love doing.

Sometimes I come across the wild turkeys in my after-lunch meanderings on the property. When that happens, I greet them (you might be surprised at how closely my gobble sounds like theirs).

Try making friends with some turkeys.

Meanwhile, if you don’t get much delight out of what you do, can you change things up, or at least come closer to what you love?