A real post, for once

My friend, Lori (aka "my goddaughter's mother") is a life coach and finds the most wonderful quotes and makes the most wonderful suggestions about how to approach life's daily challenges. Here is a post from her blog, linked from mine at the right.

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"At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer. Make a list of at least three people that you admire. With your list in hand describe what it is that you most respect about each individual. Often pinpointing what we admire in others offers insight into what we wish to become ourselves.

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I'm going to make my list public, and hope that those who I name are pleased with my description of them and why they made my "I admire" list.

1. Lori. Yep, the same Lori as above. We met more years ago than I'd care to admit, when we both worked together here in KC. She's since moved to the Seattle area and I miss seeing her almost every day horribly, even after all these years. I admire her for so, so many reasons: for her focus, her insight, her way of finding clarity and meaning in the murky and mundane. She was the absolute best Matron of Honor a girl could have wished for for reasons I cannot begin to list. The cherry on the Lori sundae is that she's a wonderful mom who is raising an incredible to-be-woman.

2. My "online pal Alison" of The crazy- busy, absolutely nuts life of a working mom.... blog to the right. Alison's one of the "just gets it" people in my life. I found her online and have followed her journey, along with her husband, to become a parent. She rode this crazy infertility and adoption roller coaster and endured her/their own trials and tribulations along the way...and just became a mommy to TWO amazing girls. I admire her for her strength, commitment, resolve and to-the-bone grit to endure what it is we endure....and to have come out on the other side, with the ultimate prize(s!). To top that off, she's a shoulder when I need her, even when her life is topsy-turvy crazy; she was there for me on a weekend when the bottom was something I was looking up at.

3. Brian. How do I even begin? He's my rock, my constant, my comfort, my center. I admire him for more reasons than there are reasons, if that makes any sense. He is the most incredibly patient soul I've ever met...ever. He handles the world with this incredible filter. My friend Julie wrote the other day about her husband, that when she saw those What Would Jesus Do? bracelets that she wondered what would HER husband do? I think that's a wonderful way to capture how I feel about Brian...what would he do? How would he react? How would he reason this out? His sense of humor is exquisite and his decency humbling. Is he a saint? Heck, no. But is he someone I admire? Hell, yes.