Author: Amanda Viviers

Admiration is a beautiful opportunity in a world full of so much judgement.

I admire people for many different reasons…

Mostly silently whilst I walk the shops, times when I sit and watch a documentary, sometimes at the beach as someone walks past slowly.

I admire single parents. I cannot imagine the late nights, with a sick child alone, those times when there is no one to hold your hand, when you wait for answers from the doctors. I admire your tenacity, I admire how you keep on going. I admire the two jobs you juggle just to make ends meet. If you are a single parent, I have never judged or discounted your opinion, I admire every single part of your being.

I admire people over eighty. Even when they are a little cranky, I kind of like it. They have so much perspective to give. I ask my Grandmother questions all the time. Most responses come with a roll of her eyes, but I know secretly she loves it and even more than that I know she appreciates my attention. I especially love watching old people in love. It does something to my soul that I cannot explain. Seeing an elderly man, grab the hand of his silver haired lover, makes my heart race with romance and hope for the future.

I admire creative entrepreneurs. Writers, dancers, poets, social media content creators, film students. Anyone taking their view of the world and having a go. Anyone, who has written something and dared to press publish. Any one who has gone back to university in pursuit of realising their dreams. I admire the creative folk, who celebrate another persons weird. Who don’t back bite, compete, copy and compare. Who just run their race and make things happen. I admire the risk takers, the music makers, the mummy bloggers, the dance teachers. I think you are all rad.

I admire my husband and his work colleagues, who spend their days with young people at risk. People who take a chance on a young adult, who has attitude to boot and opinions bigger than the bell tower. I admire youth workers, youth chaplains, youth pastors, youth leaders, youth juvenile officers, social workers. People who create opportunities for the future of our nation to find freedom in the beauty of living a simple and moral life.

I admire cleaners. I watch and thank janitors, rubbish men and food hall cleaners all the time. I appreciate their attention to detail. I appreciate how hard they work for their families. I am humbled by their selflessness in taking time to serve another. Whether they are paid or not, I think they are the salt of the earth. Our country is blessed with the beauty of cleanliness, because someone cared enough to take our over abundance of rubbish away. The event managers, the program coordinators, the production personnel, all the people that create beautiful environments that we enjoy so often without attributing to their efforts.

I admire those in our community who overcome insurmountable odds. The mothers and fathers who have had sick children long term, the parents who were once orphaned who now raise a family with pride. The visually impaired, the hearing challenged, those who have lost limbs, those who have been in tragic accidents. I admire tenacity. I admire pure grit. I admire an overweight person jogging down our beach. I admire people who wear their bikinis with pride after a mastectomy. I admire the depth of the human spirit, to dig deep and push through even when it hurts. I admire people who don’t play the victim but get help and move past the tragedies that have ensnared them.

I admire the everyday person who is honest. Who tells the truth. Who isn’t trying to be something that they are not.

I admire the person who says sorry, who owns their part to play in the breakdown of relationship, who restores, forgives and trusts again.

I admire anyone who has been hurt in love, who loves again.

I admire kind humans. The person that believes the best and loves deeply.

If you are any of these things, it is quite possible I have spent time thinking about how amazing I think you are.