What is a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you?

I’m friendly and smile at people whether I know them or not. This isn’t something I’m proud of, but something I like about myself. It reflects my philosophy that we’re all in this world together and we need to get along. That and my belief that you can’t change anybody else, but yourself. I try to live my convictions. And I love the grins and eye contact I get back.
Oh, and welcome to Fluther! (said with a toothy, slightly loony expression)

The state and stability of real happiness I’ve achieved to this point.

Why am I proud of it? I’m not sure I am. It’s more that I recognize and appreciate the value of it and where I’m at in the process but understand that it is life long.

How does it relate to who I am? In a significant way it defines me through my outlook on life and my actions in it. I would be a very different person had I not taken up this effort. While that person holds some pronounced appeal their life is not one I would choose to embrace any longer.

A student told me at the end of last week’s class; “You are a great teacher!” Made me feel like a million bucks as I came to in rather late in life.

The thing I’ve grown to be most proud of is that I am a survivor. (Others might call it optimism, others might call it downright lucky…)

There are talents and accomplishments that are important to me, things I do well etc, but I’m most proud of the above, for without that, none of the rest would be able to come to the fore.

I easily admit my mistakes and have the intention to learn from them.

Being able to appreciate and enjoy “normality”, at least where I find it in my life.

I like to take ideas apart and then to understand them well and find simple ways to explain them. On the other hand, I also enjoy finding words that are cool, even if they are words not a lot of people understand. The right word for an idea is precious and rare and a delight to stumble over (which is how it happens for me).

Why do I like this? It helps me tell stories and I love that feeling of rapt attention when a group of people is listening to me spin my web of ideas. It’s weird, too, because I know I love it, but I never have any idea what I’m going to say before I say it. It’s from a Native American tradition, where a talking stick is handed around to indicate who has the floor, so to speak. If you don’t have the stick, you are supposed to listen intently, without letting your interior monologue distract you.

Well, if you aren’t thinking, how do you know what you are going to say? Amazingly, when it is your turn, at least if you are me, something always happens. The only time I have nothing to say is when I don’t want to say what I have to say.

I wouldn’t say it’s something I’m especially proud of, but I talk a lot, and I like to be around people who can be understanding about it, and who can also keep up a conversation on their own.

I’m proud of my good humor, integrity and love of nature, animals and my desire to spread cheer, goodwill and good humor where ever I go. :-)

A good friend told me just this morning that I have such a great way of using humor to breech sensitive subjects. :-)

I’ve been married for almost 30 years and never even got close to screwing around.
My kid is 23 and isn’t a druggie nor has he ever been busted.
My work here is done.

Fighting back from the loss of my husband who lit up my world for four decades. The struggle to do this caused me to leave fundamental Christianity while keeping my faith at at least flicker height through the hard season of disappointment. One of my adult children really acted out his grief in costly and unhealthy ways and this made my own more strained. It is going on four years and I am a stronger, more compassionate person and good things have come my way.