Attribute Alphabet

At night I used to go into Laura's room to say good night, tuck her in, and do the attribute alphabet. What is the attribute alphabet? It is my attempt to counteract all the crummy, rotten, negative things that far too many of us say to ourselves. Sometimes I think we are our own worst enemies.

So I would spend a few minutes at bed time with Laura working through the alphabet, stating a positive attribute to describe her for each letter. "A is for amazing, B is for beautiful, C is for courageous, D is for dazzling," and so on. Of course, I always had to cheat a little when I reached X ("X is for an X-tra special daughter"). And it was a challenge to come up with as many attributes as possible so I didn't repeat the same words each night.

The close, after the letter Z ("Z is for zestful"), was always the same ... "And you can do anything in the world you set your mind to do."

For a long time, this was a nightly routine with Laura. At times, I think it made Laura feel just a little bit better and took the edge from a difficult day. I miss that tradition with Laura. But I still think of the many positive attributes that characterized her.