Burying an old blue sweat shirt
The first time I saw her she was wearing
a blue sweat shirt, corduroy jeans and penny loafers. Her beautiful deep brown
eyes were alive with warmth and tenderness which came from deep within her
being.
I found her to be a "comfortable" person to be around. Certainly the soft blue sweat shirt gave a relaxed feeling to her entire being.
It was by "chance" that I met my future friend and wife that beautiful autumn Saturday morning. I did not always stay in El Dorado Springs on the weekends, but fate found me here and I stopped by a friend's house, probably about an art idea, and there she sat on the living room sofa, this beautiful young woman in the soft blue sweat shirt.
Over a year later, after we were married, she told me the story of that sweat shirt. Her mother had grown tired of the shirt, in fact, very tired. She thought it looked too worn and had suggested at each washing that it should be thrown away, but Diana insisted that she didn't think it looked so bad. She said she felt comfortable in it and enjoyed wearing it.
It made the laundry basket one day, and her mother, with the help of the rest of the family, decided that it was time to take action. The shirt was put to rest. It was buried in the back yard. The matter of what to do with an old blue sweat shirt that its owner could not properly dispose of was taken care of!
When Diana went to wear the shirt a few days later, she discovered it "missing." Asking her mother what had happened to the shirt she discovered the terrible fate it had met.
She took her own immediate action, she found the "final resting place" of her shirt and dug it up!
That all took place before I first saw her. I thought the old blue sweat shirt looked just fine that day. I did not know that it was "too worn" and that it had previously been buried. It seemed perfect to me. Or was it that it seemed perfect because of the young lady who was wearing it?
It could be that she was what brought out the better qualities in the shirt. I think so.
I know that for me she is the one who has brought out the better qualities in life. She makes the days seem more comfortable. She makes the sun shine more brightly. She makes the flowers bloom more colorfully. She makes the dark clouds seem more gentle. She makes life worthwhile. She fulfills each day.
Life has been good to me because I have been able to share more than half of it with her. One of the wonderful things about our time together is that it has been filled with growth. John Lennon penned these words for his wife, Yoko Ono:
I found her to be a "comfortable" person to be around. Certainly the soft blue sweat shirt gave a relaxed feeling to her entire being.
It was by "chance" that I met my future friend and wife that beautiful autumn Saturday morning. I did not always stay in El Dorado Springs on the weekends, but fate found me here and I stopped by a friend's house, probably about an art idea, and there she sat on the living room sofa, this beautiful young woman in the soft blue sweat shirt.
Over a year later, after we were married, she told me the story of that sweat shirt. Her mother had grown tired of the shirt, in fact, very tired. She thought it looked too worn and had suggested at each washing that it should be thrown away, but Diana insisted that she didn't think it looked so bad. She said she felt comfortable in it and enjoyed wearing it.
It made the laundry basket one day, and her mother, with the help of the rest of the family, decided that it was time to take action. The shirt was put to rest. It was buried in the back yard. The matter of what to do with an old blue sweat shirt that its owner could not properly dispose of was taken care of!
When Diana went to wear the shirt a few days later, she discovered it "missing." Asking her mother what had happened to the shirt she discovered the terrible fate it had met.
She took her own immediate action, she found the "final resting place" of her shirt and dug it up!
That all took place before I first saw her. I thought the old blue sweat shirt looked just fine that day. I did not know that it was "too worn" and that it had previously been buried. It seemed perfect to me. Or was it that it seemed perfect because of the young lady who was wearing it?
It could be that she was what brought out the better qualities in the shirt. I think so.
I know that for me she is the one who has brought out the better qualities in life. She makes the days seem more comfortable. She makes the sun shine more brightly. She makes the flowers bloom more colorfully. She makes the dark clouds seem more gentle. She makes life worthwhile. She fulfills each day.
Life has been good to me because I have been able to share more than half of it with her. One of the wonderful things about our time together is that it has been filled with growth. John Lennon penned these words for his wife, Yoko Ono:
Our life together
is so
precious
together, we have grown,
we have grown.
together, we have grown,
we have grown.
That is also how I feel about Diana and I. Growth becomes a reality only when two people make a commitment to share their time together through acceptance of one another.
We have often discussed how we would define the word "love". The best simplistic definition we have arrived at is "acceptance".
To love another person you must be willing to accept everything about that person. You cannot take their strengths and focus on them alone. You cannot take their weaknesses and set them aside, bury them somewhere where you never have to look at them! They are a part of that person, just as your weaknesses are a pat of you.
Acceptance is critical to a relationship. That old blue sweat shirt symbolizes love through acceptance. She loved that shirt because she accepted it just the way it was, with its worn appearance, with its imperfections due to age. She saw its good qualities, she accepted its poor qualities. She accepted it just as it was.
Many times in life we may say we could love someone if we could just change one thing about them. That is a conditional love. That just won't work. True love is unconditional. True love is seeing the other just as they are, accepting them as they are and sharing your life with them.
She has always done that. I am thankful that she wore an old blue sweat shirt on a beautiful day in 1966. She no longer has that shirt as it did finally reach the time when it had fulfilled its purpose. but the old blue sweat shirt continues to teach us about love, about acceptance.
Happy, happy birthday my love. Thank you for accepting me just as I am.
Posted: Sun - December 25, 2005 at 06:26 PM
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"Chance favors only the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur
"Art arises from basic needs-a strong need to express and celebrate our everyday events.
In a museum most people spend less than twenty seconds looking at a work of art."
"Art arises from basic needs-a strong need to express and celebrate our everyday events.
In a museum most people spend less than twenty seconds looking at a work of art."
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Published On: Dec 29, 2005 06:33 PM
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Published On: Dec 29, 2005 06:33 PM