Freedom to make imperfect progress. Freedom to discover their own level of passion for something, instead of hiding behind a parent’s desires, ideas and passions.

How often do our children’s little glimmers of ideas have the space to grow and come to life? In this adult-focused world, at an adult-focused pace, it can be a rare occurrence. How beautiful it is when a child’s ideas are shared in an environment where there is room for them to dream, to ideate, and to make their idea come to life!

Frustration turns to empathy. Anger melts into encouragement. They are quick to cheer on another fellow hero on their journey of fighting the same monsters they’ve all fought before.

As heroes and parents found their seats, we stepped into a sacred time – the time we had been preparing for since the beginning; sharing our contract of promises with the community and making our choice to commit to it.

We talked about how when we feel hurt or angry, it may feel like our heart is like a crumpled piece of paper; and how important it is to give space for each other’s heart to unwind and become uncrumpled again.

Distraction at first seems like such a good, fun monster. He offers you everything you want – like a cake, a party or a laugh. Except it’s only later you find out that the seemingly good things he offers are actually poisonous.

1) I promise to keep the studio sacred 2) I promise to speak with kindness, encouragement, and truth, and 3) I promise to never distract myself or others.

Challenges like choosing intentionality over chaos, or focusing in on the needs of the group instead of whatever whim a hero may be feeling in a given moment.

As we clinked “plastics” (instead of glasses ;-), we smiled as we were already discovering something that drew us together the entire time – a tight-knit community of lifelong learners.