Ooohhh…this is a “challenge myself” week, but I’m thinking you guys should do it too 🙂 So I’m not out here loving myself all alone. To be clear, you will share things you love about YOURSELF. Ha. The exercise is of finding positive things about yourself, not just finding fault with yourself.

MONDAY

snowy driveway

Oh gosh, Day One and I’m already struggling. OH, here’s what I was thinking over the weekend. Maybe part of the difficulty is the word LOVE. Side Note: Sometimes I feel like so many problems in the world are really just semantics issues. Anyway. If you struggle to think of things you LOVE about yourself…try substituting the word “love” with “accept.” Or value. Or appreciate.

I appreciate the fact that my body has risen above my lifetime of crappy care and gotten me to the age of 60. Even when I do stupid things and neglect stuff…it just keeps on keeping on. And I’m feeling pretty good!

Thanks, body, for having my back!

TUESDAY

Gift from my niece for a Valentine’s Day project

Some might consider me bull-headed, but something I like about myself is that I Do Not Give Up when I REALLY REALLY want something. Like…I’ll hang on to the tiniest spark of hope for a LONG TIME (possibly too long at times but) and just keep pouring myself into a thing, trying to fan the flames until it turns into SOMETHING.

Whether it’s a business idea, personal project, relationship or…JUMPING ROPE (ha ha, you had to know you hadn’t heard the last of THAT! Who ELSE am I going to share my tiny victories with, if not you guys!). Side Note: 32 JUMPS YESTERDAY! So Proud!

WEDNESDAY

I admit I’m not always the brightest bulb in the box (I used to be better but with each passing year I can feel my mental acuity draining away), BUT. I’ve never done THIS.

THURSDAY

Okay, after three days I think I’m allowed a little vanity. I love my hair. I mean, on good hair days. When it’s good, it’s really, really good (and when it is bad, it is horrid). Right now I really like the color (although I still want to someday do a silvery blue, but maybe when I go shorter again in the future) and on perfect days, it does just what I want it to do. There are not a lot of perfect days, so I really appreciate the ones I get.

FRIDAY

Gift from a friend

I don’t recall if I ever told you guys about the brief reunion with the high school love? JIC I already have, I’ll keep this very brief. High School BF and I broke up when I was 22. Zero contact for 15 years til I was separated from Husband and GF got us together when I was visiting her in Virginia. It LOOKED like maybe we were going to give it another go…but that didn’t happen (stupid boys) BUT…he did write me the loveliest “yeah, I don’t think so” letter (that I still have around here somewhere – yes, an actual LETTER ON PAPER). And one of the things he said about me (oh god here comes the crying) was that I have, and have always had, an “indomitable spirit.”

And I so loved that. Because I have always felt that about myself. Even when I was stuck for so long in Grey Land, I always felt that part of me deep down was…hopeful and just refused to give up (even when it seemed ridiculous to NOT give up). Even when life says NO I’m still like….mmm, I don’t know, I think maybe YES, even when the odds seem against me.

So. I greatly value my (to use his term) indomitable spirit.

SATURDAY

I like that…I can make things look nice…or at least SEEM nice (ha ha), when I really don’t have much to work with. I admit I used to put more effort into that than I do these days but I can usually pull something out of my hat in a crunch. Things like…presents or tea parties or tabletop vignettes or books arranged just so on a shelf…or an outfit or a grouping of plants with some old broken up concrete thing.

SUNDAY

Valentine’s Day Zoom Craft Project w my daughter, sister, niece, and great-niece 🙂

When left to my own devices (<- heaven) I make nice pictures. I enjoy my vision. I like finding small details or things that might otherwise go unnoticed or that other people think are ugly or boring, and focusing on them…showing them to the world (or at least the 17 people who see them on the internet) in a way that makes them (hopefully) go “oh. oh, I didn’t realize that could look like that.” And that makes them appreciate that small, ugly, boring thing that they would have otherwise have not even noticed.

I saw this quote this week while I was working on this post and it seemed appropriate to share here:

“You’ve been criticizing yourself for years and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.” ~ Louise L. Hay

After giving this topic thought this week, I have more things than I thought I would. I’ll continue dropping things into regular posts now and then…the same with the gratitudes.

Come on y’all. Try it. Try and come up with one thing every day. You can do this.

xoxo