your favorite thing about you

last evening was dinner with d. the food at fellini's was excellent (linguini carbonara and chocolate lava to share - please consider both) and conversation stimulating. i don't know anyone who has more energy to radiate and it is truly always a treat to behold. i'm so glad we're friends :).

we talked of many things - god, books, music, stanford, berkeley, and much more. it was really a very long, very engaging conversation. dinner lasted three hours, i think. one of the things she asked me was "what do you love most about yourself?" because i was taken by surprise, i asked her to answer that question first. she said she loved that she was so positive in life, about everything. this is true, by the way, and very worthy of loving most, imho :). when i came back home and asked a the same question, she said, "my kindness". your accompanying modesty was unnecessary though, a. if it is truly what you love most and you know it is so, you will never let go of it. and that thought is beautiful! a asked me the same question then, and again, one answer found clear expression: my yearning to love all - the animate and inanimate - as hafiz does in his poems.

and so i urge you to think, too, (and share, if you will) what it is you love about yourself. don't be modest. make no bones about it. think of all the things you love. then, also, be gentle about the things you don't yet love but want to love, and see where that exercise takes you.

thanks, d. you don't know the kind of monster you've created with that seed of thought :).