![\"Beautiful\"](\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Beautiful-300x255.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
When she was a little girl
\nthey told her she was beautiful
\nbut it had no meaning
\nin her world of bicycles
\nand pigtails
\nand adventures in make-believe.<\/p>\n
Later, she hoped she was beautiful
\nas boys started taking notice
\nof her friends
\nand phones rang for
\nSaturday night dates.<\/p>\n
She felt beautiful on her wedding day,
\nhopeful with her
\nnew life partner by her side
\nbut, later,
\nwhen her children called
\nher beautiful,
\nshe was often exhausted,
\nher hair messily tied back,
\nno make up,
\nwide in the waist
\nwhere it used to be narrow;
\nshe just couldn’t take it in.<\/p>\n
Over the years, as she tried,
\nin fits and starts,
\nto look beautiful,
\nshe found other things
\nto take priority,
\nlike bills
\nand meals,
\nas she and her life partner
\nworked hard
\nto make a family,
\nto make ends meet,
\nto make children into adults,
\nto make a life.<\/p>\n
Now,
\nshe sat.
\nAlone.
\nHer children grown,
\nher partner flown,
\nand she couldn’t remember
\nthe last time
\nshe was called beautiful.<\/p>\n
But she was.
\nIt was in every line on her face,
\nin the strength of her arthritic hands,
\nthe ampleness that had
\na million hugs imprinted
\non its very skin,
\nand in the jiggly thighs and
\nthickened ankles
\nthat had run her race for her.<\/p>\n
She had lived her life with a loving
\nand generous heart,
\nhad wrapped her arms
\naround so many to
\nto give them comfort and peace.<\/p>\n
Her ears had
\nheard both terrible news
\nand lovely songs,
\nand her eyes
\nhad brimmed with,
\noh, so many tears,
\nthey were now bright
\neven as they dimmed.<\/p>\n
She had lived and she was.
\nAnd because she was,
\nshe was made beautiful.<\/p>\n
Author: Suzanne Reynolds, \u00a9 2019
\nPhoto credit: Nina Djerff
\nModel: Marit Rannveig Haslestad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When she was a little girl they told her she was beautiful but it had no meaning in her world of bicycles and pigtails and adventures in make-believe. Later, she hoped she was beautiful as boys started taking notice of her friends and phones rang for Saturday night dates. She felt beautiful on her wedding … <\/p>\n