I hate cliches. They irritate me, and I don't like being irritated with myself. It puts me in a bad mood and makes me unhappy, and everyone knows that when Mama's not happy....you know....so I really wanted to avoid the cliche.
The cliche being that as a mom, when I hear the words True Beauty, I immediately think,
"Oh. My kids."
The beauty of a child. They beauty of a child's laugh. The beauty of a child's innocence.
Yadda Yadda Yadda.
And I reeaaally wanted to avoid that.
I had several other options for my image this week.
The true beauty of a woman's face.
The true beauty of nature.
The true beauty of a colorful harvest.
Ultimately, though...what I found beautiful about these two is not just that they're my kids.
The beauty is in their relationship. That face to face, heart to heart, lean close to me and I'll tell you something wonderful that I won't tell anyone else because you're my sister and I know I'll love you forever kind of thing.
I just always want to remember them this way.
I want them to remember themselves this way.
Maybe it's because I'm recovering from a blow-up with my own brother. And it wasn't so much a blow-up as it was a misunderstanding.
I said something and he misunderstood it...and blew up.
In my analysis of the misunderstanding, I can see that we have grown so far apart from this moment of connection, that the playfulness is gone from us. We are adults. We are parents. We are protectors of our families. We're not little kids sharing secrets on a park bench anymore.
And that makes me sad.
He'll always be my brother. He'll always be the first love of my life. He'll always be the first best friend that I ever had.
But, it's not the same. It's careful. It's politically correct. It's grown up.
And no matter how great being a grown up can be, it's just never as beautiful as when your best friend, the love of your life, pulls you close and whispers something wonderful in your ear and you know you'll love him forever.
Truly.
