Beautiful.
She’s not what you’d immediately think of when you hear the word. Her hair, once probably blonde and shiny, has worn silver and calmer over time. Her skin bears the ravages of the years, wrinkles framing character and maturity in a never ending kidnapping of the signs and symptoms of youth.
Her eyes, that once may have sparkled with joy and laughter now show a depth of emotion that transcends the mundane, the germane.
She is nothing like I was told she was going to be.
Her manner of speech was inflected by the language of her childhood home, yet her fluency in my tongue was remarkable. Some of her mannerisms were expected, others were a surprise.
The strength of her soul was as that of the steel that never tarnishes, never dulls. She returned every question with an answer that showed her wisdom, hard fought and even harder won over a lifetime of battles that most of us would never understand.
Because she’s lived a life that hopefully none of us will ever experience.
If I were to tell you her story, you would sit in wonder, and a great deal of compassion. For even the greatest of hearts would have been turned cold by the fortunes and vicissitudes of her travail.
Yet in the midst of horrors, she has found kindness, and in the presence of demons, she found a way to live within the angels of her better nature.
She is a force to be reckoned with.
And yet I found nothing but joy in her presence, and a sense of wonder at her courage and tenacity. Yes, she is not one to suffer fools gladly, because she has seen the catastrophe of the foolish and the unkind.
She takes her time to warm up to you, and I think she trusts very few people with her truth, but in our dialogue I sensed no evasion, no dissembling. She was just herself, and there was an incredible beauty in that.
For so few of us really ever are just who we are.
And although her physical presence was not impressive, the power and courage of her soul were more beautiful to me than anything. A human being, tried in the furnace of affliction, still having the courage to be totally real and honest about who she is, unwilling to allow the opinions of others to bend or break her spirit, her energy, her soul.
In her quiet careful way, she shouted her truth from the rooftops.
As I sat and listened to my new friend for the first time, I was struck by the majesty and wonder that is the consciousness that makes us who we are.
As she spoke of the hardships that she had held silent within her for so many years, she wasn’t pleading for pity, nor seeking to glorify her ego in a recitation of all that she had survived.
Not for her the vain fallacy of the opinion of others.
What made her beautiful was that she is simply and utterly who she is.
No more, no less,
And she is wonderful.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings