Our youngest child, Quinn, is quite the character. So full of personality and life, this kid has truly completed our family in so many ways. He is the music-loving, lightsaber-wielding, wise-beyond-his-years diva that our family never knew we were missing. And EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. he is among our greatest blessings.
Quinn has many different personalities, yes, but he also has some alteregos. He’s been “Tooncha,” a self-proclaimed character that sounds to me part Native American and part cartoon, yet which he created himself and embraced wholeheartedly. “Fourth Child,” we say, when people ask where that came from. He’s been “Gecko,” “Kit Fisto,” and of course “Daniel,” but his greatest and longest-lasting role has been “Harry” from “Harry Potter.” Yes, our three year old may or may not have listened to the first book of Harry Potter AND watched the movie, but that’s another story.
Meet “Harry,” you guys. I mean it when I say that this kid truly thinks he IS Harry Potter. And the key to Quinn’s transformation into Harry is when he puts on his glasses. Not sunglasses or spectacles, though, but a pair of frames with the lenses punched out. Plastic frames. You know, the kind you can buy at the party store or Oriental Trading and get a multi-colored pack of 6 for $2? When Quinn puts his frames on – wham! – he’s in character. He will only answer to “Harry,” and he has powers like you wouldn’t believe.
MAGIC powers.
We have now purchased several packs of these glasses from Party City, only for them to arrive so we can punch out the lenses. He wears them around the house, on all of our outings, to Church and to the grocery store. Quinn truly is Harry Potter as he struts around town.
Watching Quinn, just a character in every sense of the word, I have learned countless lessons. But the one that I learn every day from watching my little “Harry” is that we should all put on our proverbial “glasses” every day. Sure, you don’t need the plastic frames, but you DO need the confidence that you, too, can do anything. There are so many things that can feel so hard day in and day out, and so many reasons to start to believe that roadblocks and boundaries are real. But it’s all about our perspective, right? PUT ON YOUR GLASSES! No matter the challenges you are facing (and we ALL face them) you can have magic powers, and you can be a superhero.
Take the lesson from my little Harry…Embrace your role and BE the character.
