Never Too Old for Compliments

Sometimes it just takes one little thing to open your eyes to something that's been right in front of your face. In this case, the "little thing" was taking my mother to the hair salon to have her hair done.

The woman who does her hair is a lovely woman, I'd guess to be in her late 60's. She is talkative and never fails to tell mother how beautiful her hair is. It is beautiful, thick and a pure white that she wears short in a wash and wear kind of style. As the stylist cut and they talked, I overheard several comments she made to mother, all of which were compliments of sorts on different things. By the tone of her voice, you could tell she was sincere in what she said.

I swear, it seemed that Mom sat a little taller and her face glowed with happiness by the time we left. The kindness of that stylist and the pleasure it gave my mother really hit me. Everyone likes to feel special and noticed. I'm going to make sure she knows she is.

Honor Thy Father and Mother

How do you honor your mother and father? There is a hunger in the human soul that is unfed even by genuine affection. That hunger is for intimacy. Revealing our true selves to others is giving them the highest gift of all. Intimacy, by its nature, conveys trust, respect and caring.

We honor our parents and other relatives by living rich, growing, abundant lives, when we credit them with wanting that for us. When we are strong, when we work through conflicts, when we follow our own dreams with faith and resolve, we are honoring those who produced us. Our happiness, shared, becomes their happiness. Our success, shared, becomes theirs.

Part of honoring our parents is to help them be loving to us on whatever level they are functioning. We know that at their best, they would have given us the moon and the stars. It is up to us to guide the relationship during our final years together. We may be the only ones who can as our parent may no longer have the necessary range of behaviors.

We honor our father and mother by who we are. We cannot eat for them, smile for them, breathe for them or die for them. But at the end we can help give meaning to all that has gone before.