I have recently been reading Barbara Brown Taylor's "An Altar in the World", yesterday I was challenged by her invitation to be attentive to the "other", to really see them, to recognise in our common humanity the presence of the divine. We are all after-all created in the image of God.
Today I led our Women's Fellowship Meeting, most of the ladies are over 60, and some in their late eighties and early nineties. It is easy to see them as a group of homogenised grey heads- what is scary is that in this case it is me who has done the homogenising, I have dared to declare them the same- and yet I know they are not...
As we drank tea after the meeting I chatted with two of the ladies at some length, here is what I saw...
These ladies,
I call them ladies because
to call them women
does not seem quite right,
they are ladies, ladies
in the best sense of the word...
+
Poised and erect,
no stooping here,
both over ninety,
they are immaculately dressed.
One has piercing blue eyes,
and though there is grey,
her hair was definitely blond,
the others head
bares trces of auburn,
and her eyes are a deep hazel.
+
As they talk I notice
that the blond one
has a softer accent,
she's from the other side of Leeds!
+
Their faces are creased
with wrinkles,
and when they smile
it is easy to see that their
crows feet are
more from laughter
than frowns...
+
One has lived abroad,
the other has never left
the country.
One wears pearls,
the other a simple gold chain.
They are similar,
but VERY different
And I am richer
for paying attention
to them.
And
I wonder now
if God has a face full
of laughter lines...
