Saturday, January 07, 2006

these hands



When I was young, like most young people, I valued perfection and beauty. But the older you get the more you understand that beauty lies in character. We've seen these hands before, hands that have worked hard for many, many years. Hands that are now adorned in celebration of a life lived well, not well-off, just well lived. These hands scrubbed kitchen floors with icy water, before they had indoor plumbing. These hands have hauled a thousands tons of hay out the animals. These hands have prepared endless meals. These hands continue to work in the old fashioned way.....with paper and pen.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

But how does she get through the metal detectors at the airport?

Anonymous said...

This picture immediately reminded me of one of my dearest friends. She is in LOVE with diamonds and wears a ring (or two) on every finger plus thumbs. For me, I'm drawn to the elegance of simplicity. I've never had the heart to comment on my dear friend's rings (tacky as I think it looks), only to say "how beautiful".

This lady's arthritic fingers have indeed seen some laborous days. There is beauty in this.

Lori said...

I really like this. I wrote something about my hands awhile back....

I love reading your posts and viewing your pictures.

srp said...

I believe these are the hands of the lady who runs a store out of her barn? A lovely tribute to a remarkable woman.

Anonymous said...

I remember that post ...now ill have to go searching in your Archive to see if there was a picture of her face aswell :-)

OldLady Of The Hills said...

Great photo....and this is so true...the hands can show a lot of history...these hands sure do.

Tim Rice said...

Our hands are beautiful for what they represent not for how they appear. No truer statement.

Anonymous said...

excellent!