Originally published Friday, 14 February 2014.
This article first appeared on www.prodigalsister.com. You can read more from Brett there, and be sure to follow her on Facebook for the latest updates.
There is a woman who lives in Texas with a heart full of nickels and dimes.
She has high blonde hair and a sparkling smile, which gained her the nickname Miss America. She has a Tami Taylor-level of unyielding love for football. Especially when her boys are playing.
She is the life of the party wherever she goes. She has an iPad that I am convinced she bought to use for Pinterest-party planning and emailing her friends amusing quips of her day-to-day.
She does this all-the-while providing the utmost care for her youngest son. While no one is really watching.
But one day, she received a little more attention and care for her son than she was expecting.
A few months ago, her son was about to undergo spinal surgery. Months of planning and praying was involved with this decision, and I'm sure thousands of hands and hearts were involved. Lifting him up, wishing him well.
The doctors needed extra blood for her son to help get them through the surgery. She was a match, of course, but she was just under the healthy weight limit to donate.
So she stuffed her pockets with nickels and dimes.
Fistfuls of the heavy, cold metal pieces lined her pants. Making her the perfect weight to donate.
Although, her plan was foiled when to her dismay, they toppled out. She was discovered by the nurses. And it must have sounded like a wind chime, the way the nickels and dimes scattered and bounced on the floor.
When she told me this story, the words made my throat so raw I thought it could never again be satiated.
It's because of this woman that we're not going to talk about chocolates today. We're not going to talk about flowers. Or sparkling rings. Or even the color pink.
Because this blog is dedicated to a love that supersedes these Dollar Store trinkets that tarnish. It goes light-years beyond the matterings of single or taken, engaged or broken.
It is not wrong to talk about these things. Not in the slightest. In fact, I rather like the color pink.
And who doesn't like dates and flowers and chocolates (oh my!).
But I think, on a day like today, I need to step back and ask myself if I'm really prepared to love the people in my life this powerfully.
Enough to weigh myself down, with nickels and dimes in the literal sense, yes, but also to carry struggles and hardships alongside others. To let no stone of hurt or worry go unturned in our friends and family members' lives.
I want love in my life to flow out of me, like nickels and dimes. A heavy representation of the care I have present. Falling to the floor. Clinking and bouncing like a wind chime that twists and turns.
I want to love like the woman in Texas. I want my love to be full of nickels and dimes.
photo credit: nate2b via photopin cc
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