Admiration

Tell us about a characteristic you admire in one of your loved ones! Why do you admire that characteristic?

I've been staring at a blank blogger post screen for fifteen minutes now, reading and rereading today's prompt. And I still don't have a solid answer. 

My first approach was to single out a character trait that I value and then decide which ones of my family members or friends is "the best". Compassion is something I place a really high value on as far as characteristics go, so it made sense to chose compassion. First I thought of how my grandmother is just so kind, at least once a summer while I'm home over break she'll send me back to camp with homemade cookies and bulk cans of coffee just for the counsellors. My uncle to 'secretly' plows his elderly neighbours driveway every time it snows. I thought about another friend who will go out of her way to help an animal in need. There are just so many ways to show compassion and they're all equally important. 

Then I thought maybe I should go another route. I strive to be compassionate towards others and it's something I consistently think about. Perhaps I should choose a characteristic that I struggle with and then choose somebody in my life who really exemplifies that characteristic. Perhaps a throw back to last week's post about being brave? I should figure out who the bravest person I know is and write about them. But I ended up with the same problem, bravery takes on so many different forms. Getting out of bed after a monumental life event doesn't necessary require more or less bravery than jumping out of a plane. And there's a fine line between bravery and making immature decisions. Most of my friends are in their mid-late twenties and I'd be willing to bet that quite a few "acts of bravery" were fuelled by some "liquid courage". 

Back to the start. I should just go ahead and choose a favourite person and determine what qualities they have that make them my favourite. This lead me into some dangerous territory. As it turns out a lot of my friends have very similar characteristics. Picking one over the other just felt wrong. 

So I ended up back at the very beginning. Back to how important I think it is for those around me to be compassionate. Every time I see somebody put others above themselves I am inspired and want to have that same selflessness. Dropping everything to be with a friend who needs you now, offering help and expecting nothing in return, doing things without expecting recognition. Ultimately it all boils down to thinking about how you would want to be treated.