Seeing the “Simple” as Superb

My daughter took this photo.

Tonight I had a date with my young daughters.  My niece was at her basketball game, and the men of the house were bonding with other men and boys at a church game night.  My daughter and I had fun together eating dinner, making S’Mores with chocolate chip cookies, playing “Cooking Mama” on the Wii, supervising the baby, and tying up the night with a blazing fire and an episode of “The Waltons”. 

The episode of “The Waltons” was touching and meaningful.  The mother was celebrating a birthday.  She was distraught over the day, feeling like she was losing her youth and seemed to be hitting a bit of a mid-life crisis.  She said to her husband, “Who would I be without you and the kids?”  She was definitely struggling, trying to embrace who she was as a person – after all, she was “just” a wife, mother, and homemaker – nothing glamorous. 

John-Boy’s birthday present brought the episode around full-fold and helped his mom embrace the day and her calling in life.  He had decided to read a poem to his mother as a gift.  John-Boy found his mother sitting alone outside and orated “The Windhover” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.  Throughout the movie, Olivia had been preoccupied with an airplane and its splendor.  The discovered poem spoke of a Falcon and its grandeur.  

The Windhover

BY GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS

To Christ our Lord

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-

    dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here

Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,

    Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

When he had finished reading the  poem, John-Boy’s mother expressed that the poem seemed like a mystery to her but it was so beautiful, “Like listening to music”.   He explained its meaning to her, that the simple things in life are really such wonderful things.  It was not said plainly, but the viewer got the message:  Olivia’s life as a mom and homemaker was one of  great worth!  John-Boy was reassuring his mother that she should think of her “simple” life as one of splendor! 

In our culture, it is easy to feel discouraged at times, wondering if what we are doing really matters… wondering if we are doing ourselves a disservice by being “cooped” up in our homes… wondering if we should be using our minds and hearts for more nobler purposes.

Remember this women, wives,

mothers, and homemakers…

What you are doing is one of the most superb things in the world!  You are building homes, building lives, building societies and futures!

The home is the training ground and

refuge for all souls. 

Your “simple” life is one of grandeur!