Another kind of Beautiful

I have a friend whose mother has Alzheimer's.

She tells me that her mother used to garden, and then she corrects herself,  "My mother was a master gardener" she says.  "People used to write us notes that told us how much they appreciated her garden, she adds wistfully,  "it was so beautiful."

My friend remembers the year, not so long ago, when her mom forgot how to take care of the flowers and had to watch that garden fade.  It was very frustrating, but not so sad as the day she stopped looking at the flowers.

As she tells me this I try to imagine what it must be like to forget everything that you once loved.  Or what it's like to have years of work on a garden melt away like a sandcastle at high tide.

How can she go to visit her mother with the roles reversed? Child turns into mother, mother becomes the child.  How can she walk into her mother's house with strength and dignity and a heavy heart that misses the woman who raised her?

So my friend visits her mother and takes care of the garden when she can, she prunes, she waters, she gives and gives.

She is such a kind and generous woman - she's a better kind of beautiful.

1 Peter 3:3-4

New International Version (NIV)

                                3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, 

                          such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry

or fine clothes. 

       4 Rather, it should be that of your inner self, 

        the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, 

which is of great worth in God’s sight.

Courage

The tear that swells

  but doesn't hit the floor

The foot that hesitates at the threshold

  and still goes through the door

The heart that never gave that way before

-- this is what Love is for. 

-jm




p.s. I'm doing a monthly column on beauty over at One Fun Mom  and this week there is a giveaway each day!  Check it out!  and if you haven't yet, please like my facebook page, maybe you'll win something ;)