3D Views

She was southern personified. Elegant, gracious, welcoming and kind....and I didn't see it coming. I had watched her for two years and been a recipient of her kindness, and I knew she was good. Her children all grown with kids of their own, she still lived a life of service. On a car ride with 6 other women through a tunnel of trees she offered a single act of kindness with a heartfelt plea. She told her story of ache and sorrow, problems we never would have guessed; the burdens only a mother can carry when her children struggle to find their way. I suppose it wasn't such a strange story, similar things happen every day, but what it did in me, I'll never forget. To have someone like her ask for help, for a shoulder, for her sound to be heard....

from someone like me...

it spun me around, and I saw in 3D what before had been a pencil sketch. This woman of strength and beauty had also been ripped and torn, and she was real. And if it was so for her, why not every other woman I knew?

Since then, I have had the privilege to know many other women who have lived a full life and fought a good fight, and I love to hear their stories. They show me purpose in what I am doing now. Purpose in the day to day, purpose in climbing the mountains, purpose in fighting with everything I've got for what I've got, and purpose in doing it together.

I suppose they could just smile and wave from the sidelines, covering their scars with the excuses of old age, but they don't, they share the good, the bad and the ugly, and that act of kindness gives me hope that one day I'll have some stories to tell of my own...

in high depth resolution.

wordfull wednesdays @ chocolateonmycranium