This lady I know did this awesomely brave thing on national TV yesterday, and even though it was hard and unpleasant, she's full of grace and love.

And on a larger stage, Lawrence Lessig is beautifully, achingly articulate, and I admire the hell out of him for the work he's doing.

Yeah! So brave and awesome!

Speaking of brave and awesome: I so admire your loving, attentive, yet relaxed style of parenting. I had a long conversation last weekend (well, probably not so long, you know how it is) with a bunch of people about how awesome it is to see you settle into a happy groove with baby NAZ.

I love it when people are able to make choices -- especially hard ones -- that lead to greater happiness! And so glad that worked out well for her.

One of my strongest memories of the time we met is a combination of super warm friendliness and a wonderful sense of humor.

Honestly? I know so many top-notch people that I hardly know where to start choosing.

But, I do live with this one teenager who blows me away all the time. She's brilliant, she's driven, she has a big soft heart and isn't afraid to act from it, she cuddles babies, pets strangers' dogs, cheerfully and calmly points out all my innuendo (argh!), brings home the most wonderful friends, and she has grown so much, in so many ways, since she was born 17 years ago. I can't curl her up on my chest anymore and whisper into her little pink ear how much I love her, but I think that cheering her on while she goes out into the big wide world and rocks it serves pretty much the same purpose.

It is super great to be surrounded by so many amazing people, isn't it? An embarrassment of riches! And that teenager we know is firmly among them -- so great!

YOU are an inspiration to continually seek and grow, to dive into both the inner and outer realm with gusto, knowing it won't always be easy, but will be worth it, even with some bumps and bruises along the way. And sometimes especially with the bumps and bruises along the way.

One of the things I love about my youngest boy is that he is insightful and has none of the usual social inhibitions about describing his insights. Like the other day he was crying -- a sorta fake/sorta real crying. I commented on that, and asked why. He didn't get defensive or anything...he thought about the question and said "When I cry, you hug and cuddle me. I'm trying to make myself cry so you'll hug and cuddle me." I pointed out that he could ask me directly for hugs and cuddles. He agreed he could but "you cuddle me differently when I'm sad and I want those kinds of cuddles."

That stuff just blows me away. He doesn't really do anything other people don't...he just doesn't know what he's not supposed to say aloud!

Oh, wow, that's awesome. It sounds like the clear and unfiltered honesty of really little kids, plus the insight and coherence of older ones. May we all be able to have that kind of insight into ourselves and our motivations and desires at least some of the time.

You amaze me with your bullheaded and loving steadfastness and willingness to do the right thing, despite huge difficulty to yourself. Even when I disagree with the details, I admire and am inspired by the way you live your life.

I have this great friend who has struggled through her life with self-image issues, self-identity, having her parents not be around much during many of her years - one on a national stage and acting as parent to hundreds of other kids on a near-daily basis and in a relationship the past almost-decade that hasn't been her dream.

Yet as she continues to see her peers around her take the easy way out through heavy drinking, drugs, partying, bad relationships, bad poly, or various other means of disassociation, she is trying hard in every aspect of her own life to better it. She has difficult days and her own ways of coping, but she gets back up again and tries harder - a virtue of her father's. I really admire how incredibly dedicated she is to making life better not just for herself, but those near and dear to her. I just had to share.

That's wonderful, thank you! She sounds like an amazing person.

I really admire your openness to hearing and incorporating critique without getting bound up in defensiveness, even when it's big or difficult. That's a rare and valuable skill.

It's so hard to choose! And that's such a wonderful dilemma.

Something I've been thinking about a lot lately is the ability to keep learning and growing, no matter what one's situation or stage of life. My grandmother was a somewhat conservative Christian, housewife, mother, and nutritionist, the daughter of a Methodist minister. Throughout her life she made choices to help and nurture pretty much everyone she could. She did this not flamboyantly, but quietly, simply as a thing to do. In her (late?) thirties, she joined a writing group and grew into a somewhat masterful poet, sharing her view of the beauty of the world through words as well as through deeds. When her daughter moved to Canada, lived in an open marriage, and rejected all sorts of "normalcy", she came to terms with it, with love. When her grand-daughter came out as a lesbian, she again struggled, and again came to acceptance, through love. Etc. She gave me inspiration to write, give, grow, and be grateful, everyday, for the rest of my life.

Awesome! She sounds like a remarkable person.

You are awesomely community-minded, and I'm always inspired by how forthrightly you face the good and bad of life -- celebrating the good and taking on the bad without making it worse.

It's been a week of thinking a great deal of my 14 yr old niece. She's dealing with all the frustrations that is being that age, plus a lot of baggage she didn't ask for, but she is passionate, a stunningly talented artist, and even if she doesn't want to admit it, very protective and loyal to her little sister. It has been one of the biggest challenges of my life lately to be part of her world, but it's worth it when I see her stop and think and change, even when it's hard.

Man, you couldn't pay me to go back to being 14!

I love your enthusiasm!

waket is amazing with animals. we volunteer together at the mspca, and there is no horse or chicken who can resist his charms. our animals have (as you might imagine) often got a lot of trust issues, and yet he can earn their trust, often shockingly fast. it's a beautiful thing to see.

That is a wonderful skill.

I admire your curiosity and ongoing seeking and exploring.

A year ago, my daughter could not yet crawl, and her vocabulary was "buh-buh".

Today she walks, almost-runs, goes up and down stairs by herself, adds new words practically every day, has managed short sentences (she said "please help with boots", the other day) and constantly staggers me with her personality.

And I love her to pieces.

So great!

You have an awesome laugh.

Yes!!

I admire your thoughtfulness and sense that joy is a value in life, not a luxury.

My kid, my kid, my kid, my kid. Not only is she smart and wild and creative and loving and *hilarious* -- seriously, her sense of comic timing can be impeccable -- she is surprisingly good at saying difficult, complicated, emotional things. I know it can be pretty hard to be 7, but there are days I want to be like HER when I grow up.

She so is!!

It's not a novel observation, but I love your playfulness. It is fantastic in itself, and also it has helped me plunge into my own.

Today I nominate a nephew. I met him about a decade ago when he was in his early teens; not an easy period for a young man. Except for one bad and stressed-out patch he's been consistently level-headed, goal oriented, and sensible. Not overtly driven, necessarily, but figures out practical ways to get from where he is to where he wants to be. He's funny and good with children, too.

That's great!

I admire your engagement.

One of my best friends went on her birthright trip over the summer and felt like Israel was Home. In four months she managed to put a zillion ducks in a row and emigrate. The bravery it took to leave everything and everyone she knew to go to a country where she didn't even speak the language is astounding to me.

That's amazing.

I love how you do things even though they scare you!

I'm finding adolescence a much greater challenge than I'd thought I would ... especially the part where I'm bending over backwards to accommodate my teenager's new relationship and he's snarling (a day after I drove him to Connecticut to spend the day with his object of affection, on 4.5 hours of sleep) that his being in a relationship at all is "none of your business."

qwrrty, however, seems to have found a way to speak our son's language, and to do it in such a loving and respectful way that the kid was moved to apologize in earnest. I don't know where Tim is finding the patience, the calm, or the ability to read some adolescent cues accurately and let others roll right off him, but I admire those parenting skills immensely.

dpolicar has been walking with me about 2 years now. What started out as something to help him recover from his stroke has turned out to be something to help me sleep as well as to manage stress. And even when I know he is stressed and feeling the winter blues, he indulges me by bundling up and sallying forth into whatever the wilds have to offer. Of course, that's just his cover for being an amazing listener, an inquisitive friend and nosy in all the right ways but I'm not letting on that I know that. ;)

And margaritas!! Oh my favorite drink! Now I simply MUST find someone to drink with tonight!