The Weathered Old Barns

From: Dickschu

on 8/26/2005
. .
. .
  A stranger came by the other day with
 an offer that set me to thinking.  He
 wanted to buy the old barn that sits
 out by the highway.  I told him right
 off he was crazy.  He was a city type,
 you could tell by his clothes, his car,
 his hands, and the way he talked.  He
 said he was driving by and saw that
 beautiful barn sitting out in the tall
 grass and wanted to know if it was for
 sale.  I told him he had a funny idea
 of beauty. 
. .
. .
  Sure, it was a handsome building in its
day.  But then, there's been a lot of
winters pass with their snow and ice and
howling wind.  The summer sun's beat down
on that old barn till all the paint's
gone, and the wood has turned silver
gray.  Now the old building leans a good
deal, looking kind of tired.  Yet, that
fellow called it beautiful. 
. .
. .
 That set me to thinking.  I walked out
 to the field and just stood there,
 gazing at that old barn.  The stranger
 said he planned to use the lumber to
 line the walls of his den in a new
 country home he's building down the
 road.  He said you couldn't get paint
 that beautiful.  Only years of standing
 in the weather, bearing the storms and
 scorching sun, only that can produce
 beautiful barn wood.
. .
. .
  It came to me then.  We're a lot like
that, you and I.  Only it's on the
inside that the beauty grows with us.
Sure we turn silver gray too... and
lean a bit more than we did when we
were young and full of sap.   The dry
spells and the stormy seasons do a
job of beautifying our souls that
nothing else can produce.  And to
think how often folks holler because
they want life easy !
. .
. .
And I suspect
we've grown
more beautiful
for
the seasons
we've
been through. 

. .
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