WTW: Celebrating Me

For this week's Woman to Woman, Morning Glory and Lei challenged each participant to write about her strengths and accomplishments, something women probably don't do often enough. For other posts about celebrating who we are and what we can do, visit Seeds from My Garden and My Many Colored Days today!

I started this post at 6 a.m. and it's taken me until now, 6 p.m., to sit down and articulate what I might say. In the end, I feel the best about just writing what my husband had to say. So much for tooting my own horn, huh?

Me: What do you think is one of my strengths?
David: Is this for your blog?
Me: Phthththththth! Does it matter?
David: Well, you always ask me these kind of things when you want to write about it on your blog. I was just wondering.
Me: Well?
David: You are discerning and intuitive and have a really good "feeling" for people and choices and consequences. You know how to follow your gut and you have a strong moral compass. I think you've always had good examples in your life, but a lot of the time you've been left on your own to actually chart your course, and it's made you really thoughtful and intuitive. I think that's your greatest strength because it permeates everything you do - your interactions with people, being a mother, planning for the future. And I think I respect it because it's the opposite of how I choose or decide things, but it keeps you (and us) in line.

And then later...

Me: But what do I bring to our home or family?
David: You're the driving force. You're like the center tent pole, holding it all up.
Me: Does that mean I wear the pants?
David: No, I think we share...
Me: We share the pants?
David: Yeah, we each have one leg in the pants. No, I mean - you are a great organizing force. You see what needs done in our home and you see it through. You let me know what you need help with. You see what the boys need, and you try to make it happen. You have ideas and you make lists and you communicate so that things fall into place...
Me: But our house is a mess more often than not.
David: But if any of us is hurt or sad or needs to talk, you're the one we want. I have close relationships with the boys, but when it comes down to a need, you are the one they want - I just won't do. And as much as I love Calvin or Henry, when it comes down to it, you're the one I want to talk to and be with more than anyone else.

So...my strength lies basically in marrying a man who tells me exactly what I want to hear, on demand.

Kidding, ladies, only kidding...

But talking to him made me realize that there are lots of things that I (and lots of women) do that aren't the kind of things we get thanked or recognized for - Hubs isn't likely to come home from work and say, "Wow, thanks for the honey-do list and your incredible intuition today. It makes my whole world better."

But the bottom line is that the better part of our natures - the ability to nurture, to listen, to organize the aesthetics of our home life, to laugh, to roll with the punches, to be present - are the things that will top the list of what the people we love the most appreciate the most.

Of course, with the kind of springboard David gave me in listing my strengths, I can come up with a few more accomplishments, physical attributes and character traits that are uniquely mine or especially wonderful, things that would stand on their own whether I had a husband and kids or not, but today I think I'll celebrate me, being the one that all my boys want, just because I'm me.