Our First Week

Wow! What a beautiful week it has been.

Has it been perfect? No, not at all. Have there been bumps and bruises? Yes, most definitely. And yet, so much growth has happened already in our growing Tribe.

Kindness is growing. Creativity and Courage are sprouting. It is fun to see.

One of the Heroes’ favorite times of the day is playing outside on the playground. They create games like, “I’m the mom/dad/brother/sister/baby” and “Rocks are Lava!” In addition, many of our Heroes have a fascination with practicing to earn the right to win the game show, “American Ninja Warrior”. So you will often see them climbing up the slides, on top of the monkey bars – they love challenging themselves and showing off what they can do. The best part about it? They are free to explore and create. As a guide, I get to sit back, take it all in and cheer them on. Excitement and joy for living are beginning to take root in their hearts. And, they are learning how to respect the others around them in a moment-by-moment way. So beautiful.

We’ve also been learning what it means to be a Hero this week. The Heroes LOVE the short video about the Hero’s Journey found here and request to watch it daily. Through various Studio Challenges this week like the “Paper Airplane Challenge” and the “Marshmallow Tower Challenge” where they face genuine obstacles and even the disappointment of failure, instance by instance they are learning more of what it means to be a hero – to keep trying even when it’s hard and to get back up when they fail.

One such instance, where a younger hero’s team had “failed” both times at the marshmallow challenge (and he didn’t get to earn an extra marshmallow to eat), he began crying. Another hero had compassion on him, and decided to give him her marshmallow that she had finally won! That act of kindness made an impression on everyone around.

We are beginning to find our rhythm with the heroes working together and leaning on each other through each challenge we face. 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. 🙂

Day, by day, we are witnessing the sprouting and growing of a strong, beautiful Tribe!