This is a repost from May 7, 2014
About a week ago I went for a walk with my ten year-old son and our next door neighbor’s nine year-old daughter, in our surrounding neighborhood. Before we even got off our street, we encountered a puppy running around loose (about 4-6 months old, no collar). He began to follow us toward the road, and I was concerned that he would run out into traffic, so we doubled back and my son and his friend played with the puppy in our front yard while I went in to get a collar and leash to take him with us on our walk in the hope that we’d find his owner. I am not, generally, a dog person, but he was such a sweet, affectionate, enthusiastic little boy…
We walked around the neighborhood, asking anyone we encountered on the way whether they were missing a dog, or they knew of anyone who might be, and we knocked on the door of any home that the puppy seemed particularly drawn to. By the time we rounded the last curve, the kids were picking out names for the dog (in spite of the fact that they knew that was never gonna happen).
We walked about a mile before we finally found his home.
As we turned toward our own home with an empty leash, my son remarked, “I feel really good now. Like we did something special.”
His friend replied, “You were right!” (Apparently they’ve had this conversation before.) “We don’t need super powers to be heroes.”
In this world there are many variations of flight: The natural ability of a bird on the wing, the technological marvel of a 747 in the air, the super-human fantasy of heroes in spandex and capes…
And you – quietly going about your life, doing what you do, making personal connections, caring, and working toward making dreams come true.
~ Christiana McQuain
