27 April
2014
What Is
Beauty?
“What is
beauty?” asked the teacher one day in Miranda's 3rd
grade class, “I want you all to go home and think about what beauty
is. Write me a paragraph about what beauty is to you and turn it in
by the end of the week.”
What is
beauty? Thought Miranda to herself. She saw lots of things that
were pretty but she knew she had to ask others what beauty is.
“Mommy,
what is beauty? What does it mean to have beauty?” inquired Miranda
when her mother picked her up from school that day.
“Well that
is an interesting question sweetheart. Let's see. To me beauty comes
from deep down. Someone may look good on the outside but if their
heart and soul are mean or bad then they are not beautiful. Beauty
comes in the form of kindness, love and compassion. That's beauty to
me,” responded her mother.
“Daddy,
what is beauty” she asked her father next.
“Beauty is
the way you and your mother smile at me when I walk into the house
after work. It's the twinkle in your eyes when you are happy,” said
her father as he patted her head.
She had so
much to think about when she went to bed. She already had so many
answers for her paragraph about beauty but she felt she needed more.
She would ask her great grandma and her grandma tomorrow. After
school the next day, Miranda's mother took her to her grandmother's
house where both her grandmother and great grandmother lived.
“Grandma,
what is beauty?”
“Hmmm...
let me see. Beauty is the glimmer that comes off of the grass after a
light rain and the rainbows that grace our skies. Pink skies and
flowers blooming through the snow fall is also very beautiful. Those
types of things remind you that God exists,” explained her grandma.
“And great
grammy what do you think beauty is?”
“When I
was very little we lost everything because of the depression. One day
I saw a man from the neighborhood waiting in line for his bread and
soup. When he got his share he noticed a mother giving all of her
portions of food to her children and other children in line including
me. She left nothing for herself. He gave her his bread and soup,
kissed her forehead and walked away empty handed. That man had waited
in line for many hours for that bread and soup and lord knows when he
ate last. That kindness was the most beautiful thing I ever saw,”
reminisced her great grandmother.
The last
person she would ask was her 4 year old sister Abby. “Abby, what is
beauty to you?”
“Um, uh, I
think it is kitty. Kitty is beautiful. Look at her. She is
beautiful,” replied her little sister.
Miranda felt
she had enough this time and decided it was time to write her
paragraph. She felt that she really knew what beauty was and was
happy to share with her teacher what her family had taught her.
Beauty was absolutely not what she thought it was at all. She handed
in her paper and her teacher was very impressed.
Miranda's
paragraph was framed at put in class it said: We were asked what
is beauty so I asked my family. I have learned that beauty is how we
see it. Beauty is the colors all around the world. Beauty is kindness
and compassion. Beauty is how a father and a husband sees his family.
Beauty is generosity from a stranger. Beauty is a sweet kitty to a
little girl. Beauty is everything we have good in this world and we
should cherish all of that because without beauty we have a very ugly
world. The teacher expected the children to be a bit superficial
but she was pleasantly surprised that the babes of the world are
deeper than we think.
28 April
2014
Listen to
the World
We walk
around and hear ourselves,
We listen
without hearing what the world is saying.
Baby birds
chirp and bring sounds of life.
Cars hum and
sound like buzzing bees.
The wind
whistles in our ears and tells us secrets.
Dogs bark
bringing us suburban peace.
Children
laugh and remind us the joys of youth.
Trees rustle
and remind us how small we are.
You don't
always listen with your ears,
No sometimes
you listen with your soul.
Our feet
listen to the grass grow and burst with life,
Fresh and
full beneath our toes.
Our hands dig
in the Earth to plant flowers,
We hear with
our fingers the worms churning
And the
essence of the core of our world.
All around we
hear sounds but if you listen,
Yes listen to
the sounds of our Earth,
It'll tell
you a story unlike any other.
A story of
forgiveness, of love, of urgency, of life,
A story of
all of us, so listen with your heart and soul.
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