Feel very free to skip this post. I grew up in a world where pride in oneself was a sin. There was no place that i could see where it was ok to be content with something about myself or even proud of something about myself. So, knowing that there are others for whom accepting compliments and acknowledging stengths can be a challenge, i am choosing today to model what it looks like to see positive things within. 

Note that i could write a similar post about all the mistakes i have made and the things i wish i could do or be differently, but today i’m going to focus on the positives. 

1. I like that i made a working hydraulic ram for the science fair with the help of a missionary who was building actual hydraulic rams in africa to get water to villages.

2. I like being ambidextrous in many things and i would like to learn to write with my right hand as well.

3. I like my toes. 

4. I like that i have dreams while i sleep that allow my subconscious to communicate with my conscious mind.

5. I love that I got to go to Wheaton and get such a good education.

6. I love being able to sit down at the piano and create music that i enjoy.

7. I like my skin tones.

8. I like my eyelashes.

9. I love that i got to live in Australia.

10. I love that my soul resonates with beauty in nature — mountains, water, the stars, wilderness.

11. I love being a lifelong learner.

12. I like that i am creative.

13. I like being able to feel deep joy when listening to music.

14. I like my handwriting. 

15. I like my legs.

16. I like my sense of humor.

17. I like my sense of adventure.

18. I like that i have learned that I’m much less important than I thought I was.

19. I like the part I often play in the group process which takes the group to a deeper, more intimate level.

20. I like my appreciation of and desire for order. 

21. I like the fact that my eyes can detect slight nuances of color and my ears can detect slight nuances of sound.

22. I like my willingness to sometimes buy things that will enhance my life even if they are not on sale.

23. I like being a good listener.

24. I like that i have been willing and am willing to continue learning through the experience of motherhood.

25. I love that i got to give birth to five marvelous children.

26. I love my ability to see wonder in small things.

27. I love my willingness to ask questions and to live with the questions even though it is my natural inclination to want answers.

28. I love my desire to allow my children to walk their own paths and my choice to support them on their paths. 

29. I love myself for having the presence of mind to marry that Greg Taylor fellow.

30. I like that short little me ran hurdles on the track team in 9th grade.

31. I love it that i spent a summer in Alaska when I was 18.

32. I love my desire to say “yes, and” to the many curves that life does throw.

33. I love my willingness to have Lasik eye surgery a few years ago after wearing glasses since age 7. It’s magical to be able to see without glasses.

34. I love the courage i had in australia which culminated in me being in a bona fide rock band for a year.

35. I love my brain even though the way i think seems to bring tremendous challenges my way regularly.

36. I like that i have no need whatsoever to change anyone’s mind on the internet.

37. I love that i am a solutions-oriented person. 

38. I love it that I am a writer and that I write.

39. I love that i got to meet Bono, mostly because of the whole day and how it all happened and what characteristics i showed that helped it happen.

40. I like that i have a modicum of computer literacy and know how to get answers to my questions. 

41. I like that my life verse is Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

42. I love that i have mostly wonderful memories of my parents and feel blessed to have had dad as a father and to have mom as a mother. 

43. I like how i miss such obvious things because there’s nothing like realizing something has been right in front of you all along. 

44. I’m glad i have come to believe that we all have the answers we need within, and that sometimes it still helps to have someone help us access them. 

45. I love that my life was forever changed by the experience of having the one and only Jim Young as a theatre prof at Wheaton. 

46. I love that i have a wealth of good childhood memories of magical times on grandma’s farm. 

47. I love the ever-changing balance of masculine and feminine energy i possess.

48. I like that I am a friendly person.

49. I like my strong bones. (Bomes, as Kepler calls them.)

50. 54 things is a lot of things. 

51. And i still need three more to get there.

52. Unless i cheat by having this conversation.

53. Because no one is still reading. 

54. I like my ability to finish things, although my ability not to finish things may be more highly developed.