I play with noticing, thanks to having read the book The Art of Noticing and reading the newsletter. One day, for example, I waited for my husband outside a hardware store that’s painted bright blue. I looked at it and said “Blue!” Then I slowly turned in a circle and noticed every instance of blue I could spot. (I must admit I took pictures and tweeted this out so it wasn’t solely a mindfulness moment.) I ended up with 9–everything from my bike bag and the rack I stood next to, to cars and signage and other buildings, to my own jacket and glasses. I’ve done yellow on a walk and that was equally rewarding.
I also sometimes truly look at the people around me instead of letting my eyes slide across as if they’re a glassy surface. Not noticing or seeking, simply looking. So much wonderful variety, so many stories inside them all!

I understand Kevin’s point about this feeling like self-adulation, yet if we’re supposed to know ourselves then we’re supposed to know our positive attributes as well as any others. I will also note the possibility of some gender differences in responding to this. They’re older studies now but there was research that men took solo credit for accomplishments while women credited the team. Being able to own what we’re good at is important, especially if you carry human characteristics that at times have been assumed to be “less than”, making it harder for your genuine competence to be recognized and acknowledged.

Many times on here someone’s response has been a variation of needing to love ourselves if we are to love others. This question is a moment to recognize that we have qualities that others appreciate. We can bring those into our days and encounters and affect the lives of others.

I think others might say that my greatest gifts are that I am kind, optimistic, and I stay centered and calm. Staying on an even keel just appears to be my temperament so I don’t know that they need to compliment me for that.
I recently got compliments from 2 different directions at work about how I have managed to introduce new ideas and bring people along through a pretty significant shift and do so in a way that welcomes people even if they don’t embrace the entire change right away and helps them come along in an evolution.

A few months ago I went through an executive training with one of those strength finder analysis tools. They told us that often people want to emphasize their weaknesses and work on those when instead we should recognize our strengths, lean into those and use them, and seek out others with different strengths to balance our team. So to me it makes sense to know what I’m good at, which also means knowing what I am not good at.

So many times. The one that stands out In recent years is working on an ambitious statewide plan and putting it out for comment repeatedly inside my agency and then out to the public. Of course I thought the draft was wonderful and some of the more pointed comments could sting a bit. But listening to what they were telling me about how that plan didn’t land for someone else and then addressing those comments genuinely made it a stronger plan and now in fact it’s winning awards, so that’s exciting.

I just… do. I had to think about what it would feel like if I were living in violation of my principles to find a way into this question. Sure, I make mistakes and make mistakes and for example perhaps I’m less than kind in a moment when one of my principles is to be kind but generally I guess I would say I have the habit of living according to my principles. I’m concerned about what we’re doing to the planet so I bike, walk, take transit, try to reduce my consumption, compost, et cetera. Since individual action isn’t enough to save the planet I also work on systemic and institutional change. That’s just one arena affected by my principles. As I began learning about what it meant to be anti-racist I had to think consciously about my words and actions and where implicit bias still showed up. I am still doing that and still learning but some things are now habit or reflex that once were the product of conscious thought and reminding myself. So I live according to my principles by practicing them over and over until they become habit.

My husband, both for who he is as my life partner and love of my life and right now especially for his caregiving as I deal with a broken wrist.
My 2 daughters, who have grown into wonderful women.
My stepchildren, also grown into wonderful adults and who accepted me as a person in their dad’s life and in theirs all those years ago.
My friends who make sure we stay connected through text and voice messages at times we can’t see each other, especially my best friend who lives hundreds of miles away and whom I get to see only occasionally but who is part of my life.
My colleagues who work so hard to make a difference and who support each other as a team.
The many many people who labor so that I have hot coffee in my cup, electricity that heated that water, everything it took to grow those beans and bring them to this country and put them on the shelf at the grocery store.
The many maintainers who keep things running and working through difficult times and broken supply chains and all the rest.
The people who act and speak and march and rise up to work for a better world for everyone.

I notice in looking at the URL of this page that the question originally was going to ask what difficult truths might we accept right now.. It’s a more expansive question to just think about what possibilities come as a result of acceptance, whether that is accepting something wonderful or something less than wonderful. If I can avoid attachment and let go of the idea that things will turn out a certain way, acceptance is much easier. I can set myself up for disappointment, struggle, followed by acceptance, or I can try to move straight to acceptance by being in a state of open curiosity for what’s coming next.