Hey there.
Welcome to a hit of hope.
Have you ever taken a personality quiz?
Maybe one to figure out which Harry Potter house you would be in.
Or what your spirit animal might be.
Tests like these can be tempting,
Especially amidst the wild waves of life.
They might feel like a cosmic ring buoy.
To pull us into the safe harbor of knowing.
This.
This is who I am.
Enter the personality quiz a friend and I came up with once.
Which element are you?
We decided he would be salt.
Full of flavor,
Of the earth,
Acting as a cheerleader for others,
Crucial for making life good.
Someone else we knew was definitely helium,
All swirling air and often delightfully ridiculous.
Copper would be someone who was warm,
Bright.
Grounded.
Or someone who kills the energy slowly but surely.
Well,
They must be lead.
My friend and I agreed.
I am Mercury,
That quick silvery element that has a hard time staying still.
Mercury can also read temperatures,
Which tracks as I am constantly cued into how hot or cold a situation is running.
It's one of my superpowers.
And.
.
.
It's exhausting.
Which reminds me of something my therapist once observed.
Our superpowers.
Can also be our potential downfalls.
If you are gold,
Shining,
Invaluable,
Soft.
People will adore you.
But they also might use you.
Shape you into things you'd rather not be.
If you are carbon,
You are the foundation of life,
The ultimate shapeshifter.
Yes,
You can meet whatever the demands of the situation are,
But oh my god,
The pressure.
My quick,
Changeable energy often serves me well.
Like Clark Kent,
I can transform on the fly from professor to yoga teacher to writer to pastor.
Now I'm in spandex.
Now I'm in heels.
And my ability to take the temperature of a room can help me know what's best.
In the situation.
Should I be calm?
Should I be strange?
Should I be funny?
Should I be quiet?
In yet all of this.
And leave me feeling like Superman.
In the present.
Kryptonite.
It reminds me of something my mom often says about my dog,
Alfred.
He's a Chiweenie,
And whenever he's interested in something,
His monster ears rise up like antenna.
And my mom will ask,
Don't his ears get tired?
Don't we all?
Get tired sometimes.
Of being who we are.
Of leaning into our superpowers.
Perhaps that's why elements bond.
To hydrogen,
Join forces with one oxygen to make water,
Something that is more stable and yet also more able to go with the flow.
Which is why it's so important to bond with those who bring out our best.
Quality.
Even if they might be wildly different.
Than ourselves.
And that can bring its own challenges because some combinations.
Bring big reactions.
Like the time my high school valedictorian put wet paper towels over a sink in our chemistry classroom.
He turned the Bunsen burner on,
Aimed the unlit gas down into the deep well,
And lit a match.
The explosion burnt off his eyebrows.
There is power.
In our ways of being.
In the potential combinations we might make.
So we need to treat the elements of our personalities.
With a healthy respect.
And as I am learning more and more.
We need to practice working with.
Rather than fighting against.
Our ways of being.
I once read.
I am.
As God created me.
I repeat it now on days when I feel too Betsy.
But as the wise prophet Popeye oft proclaimed,
I am what I am.
Just as you are as you are.
Each with our own powers.
And pitfalls.
And in the midst of all this,
We can bond.
And see what's possible.
Take care of you.
Be you.
But really.
Take care of you.
And your eyebrows.
