Unconditional

I had an allergic reaction over Christmas Break. It was bad. My eyes swelled up and my skin scabbed over my eye lids and cheeks. I looked hideous. All this to say that through it I experienced something so precious and sweet, something I could not have experienced otherwise. I'm surely not one too concerned with my appearance - I'll go to the store without makeup, go to drop the boys at school in running clothes - I've just always been that way. But I was even a bit self conscious having to get out and fly on an airplane looking the way I did. (Part of me even wondered if they would let me fly since I looked nothing like the picture on my ID.) All this to say that my children did not even notice. I had to stop them and ask them what they thought about it. "Don't I look gross?" I asked. "Mommy you don't look gross, you just look tired." Never did they ask much about it or look at me funny, they just went about like nothing was wrong. Sure, they are children and probably self absorbed and not concerned with things that don't really affect them, but I found much comfort in knowing that no matter what I look like, they love me because I am mom. In their eyes, I can do little wrong. If we could all love in such a way, where appearances make no difference one way or another in how we treat or love other people - well, that would be something.