48: A Little Jolt of Joy – The Powerful Message of the Movie Encanto for ADHD Brains

Gifts That Cannot Be Timed or Measured

A little jolt of joy today after watching Encanto with my kids. If you haven’t seen it, it follows the Madrigal family, where every child and grandchild receives a magical gift meant to serve their community, everyone except Mirabel, who receives no gift at all.

What I think Mirabel’s real gift is

Partway through the movie, I paused it and asked my family if they’d figured out Mirabel’s gift yet. To me, it was obvious almost immediately: her gift is helping the people around her realize they have value beyond whatever they were told they were valuable for. She gives her overburdened sister permission to rest instead of always being strong. She gives her “perfect” sister permission to want something different than the path everyone assumed for her. Her gift isn’t visible or measurable the way everyone else’s is, it’s the absence of judging people only by their most obvious strength.

Why this feels so familiar

This is exactly the experience I believe so many ADHD people live with. We exist in a world that measures value through efficiency, productivity, checked boxes, linear thinking, and when a strength doesn’t fit that mold, it gets overlooked entirely, sometimes even by the person who has it. The family in the movie doesn’t recognize Mirabel’s gift because it isn’t obvious or immediately useful to the community’s visible needs. But it’s arguably the most powerful gift in the whole story, it makes everyone around her more fully themselves, because she understands what it’s like to not succeed by the measuring stick everyone else is using.

A moment from real life

One of my sons ran track without ever winning medals or standout times. What I was proud of was simply that he kept showing up for something difficult. At his team banquet, his coach gave him a coach’s award and said, “This young man has skills that cannot be timed or measured.” That line still gets me. Isn’t that exactly what we’d want said about any of our children, or about ourselves? That real gifts don’t have to be things that show up on a stopwatch or a scoreboard. Love, patience, encouragement, showing up for people, none of that gets measured, and yet all of it is deeply valuable once it’s actually seen.

I hope you can recognize that kind of gift in yourself today, even if it’s never been the kind anyone put a number on.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.