When we marry, we believe we are doing it out of love. But how very little, we truly understand or realize. When we marry, we marry out of the desire to create something new, something shared between two people that they never would have had otherwise.
When we are married...for a week, or a year, for 25 years, or even for 50, we still don't truly understand the depth of relationship. We don't understand any of it, until that love is tested.
When love is tested, when we are given the gift of seeing the other side of that golden coin, then finally we are asked to choose...to choose between the self or the other.
And as we are tested, sometimes over and over and over, again, we finally understand the truest nature of love...loving the other more than the self, or perhaps, truly loving the mirror of the self as reflected, by and in, the other.
We cannot truly love unless we are grounded in understanding, acceptance and love of the self, but we cannot truly love another without releasing self-focus and self-absorption and offering it up on the altar of giving and self-sacrifice.
And as we are tested, sometimes over and over and over, again, we finally understand the truest nature of love...loving the other more than the self, or perhaps, truly loving the mirror of the self as reflected, by and in, the other.
We cannot truly love unless we are grounded in understanding, acceptance and love of the self, but we cannot truly love another without releasing self-focus and self-absorption and offering it up on the altar of giving and self-sacrifice.
It has taken me my own lifetime to understand this and to see and to understand why some can give and some cannot. Why some can sacrifice and others cannot. And most of all, we some of us reach out beyond the self to help others, while some of us can only want and need and give to the self and the self, alone. While others find it easy to want to give and to share. Those who cannot give, or still not yet grounded in self enough to offer out into the world to others from that place of love.
I am blessed to have been raised by parents who were able to give. Perhaps, it was not always that way, perhaps they, too had to learn life's lessons through trials and tribulations. But now, over these past decades, I have watched as each has sacrificed for the good of the other and others.....just as parents, each of us sacrifices for the good of our children or our loved ones.
In honor of this kind of true love, in honor of the truest meaning of marriage, with its deepest trials and tribulations...as well as, my mother's on-going challenge of Alzheimer's Disease.... I have finished my first Alzheimer's Art Quilt Project block. I am calling this block 'For Better, For Worse' to symbolize marriage vows as they are challenged...whether by Alzheimer's or by disease of any kind...physical, mental or spiritual.
shown above:
My first Alzheimer's Art Quilt Iniatiative project 'quiltlet' or fabric art postcard.
My first Alzheimer's Art Quilt Iniatiative project 'quiltlet' or fabric art postcard.
Using my previously made inchies from my tutorial on How To Make An Inchie as part of my fabric art quiltlet, and using embroidery or quilting them on, and then adding beads etc. as a decorative effect. This was a fun hand working project I was able to relax with during my non-caretaking/working hours helping my parents, here in Douglas, Alaska.
Check out my related posts:
How To Make A Fabric Postcard
How To Make An Inchie
Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"
2 comments:
Another very wonderful post - and a great postcard.
Your postcard is gorgeous. I've been reading your posts and don't know how to respond. You've provided so much wonderful details about your parents life together; yet now that life is touched with sadness. Yet, their love for each other continues to shine through and be a beacon for everyone around them.
May God continue to bless you and your family as your travel on this journey.
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