Finally, my favorite post of the week! Every Saturday night I take some of the photos that you have uploaded to the Facebook wall, and I post them here. I love This is Beautiful You because it gives me (and everybody else) an incredible glimpse of who we all are. It puts a face on the awesome people coming here. It gives us a beautiful idea of the uniqueness and diversity of the followers here at SDL. More than anything, it shows all of us just how beautiful we each can be.
Anyway, thank you for sharing a small part of yourselves. It’s my honor to put the spotlight on you today. This is beautiful you.
Which photos made you the happiest today?
If you’d like to send in photos to be considered for a future “This is beautiful you” and other future blog posts, please post them on the Facebook wall (we need lots more!). Only upload photos that you don’t mind me using, and that you have the rights to. The photos can be of yourself, or you with anybody that you love or are close to (kids, friends, significant others, parents, siblings, whoever!).
I wish I could post them all today. If your photo didn’t make it, check back over the next few weeks! The picking process is 100% random.
Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
PS. If you’re new here, we’d love to have you find a way to follow along. We have a lot of fun around here.
PPS. What made your grandparents beautiful?
Sometimes I miss mine so much! Never knew my Grandpa Stewart, he died before I was born. Grandma Stewart died when I was 12, How I love her! She was stubborn (like me), funny (again, like me ;) ) just a wonderful person. My Grammy and Grandad Ball were fantastic, lost Grammy right before I got prego with first kiddo and Grandad 5 years later. I need to go adopt some grandparents!
Will always be with me. The patience and attention she gave me does not fall on deaf ears. I am because of her unconscious or not. Thank you everryday!
how they let me take out all the tupperware and play with it and never once complained about the mess, how i always got to lick the bowl and spoon when grandmas were making cookies, cakes, and pies, how we would play hide and seek for hours and even though i hid in the same 4 places every time they acted shocked whenever they found me, how they let me do all the "super fun stuff" i didn't get to do at home and that "it's our little secret".how my grandma pulled me away from the window at my parents' house in beverly hills because "they might come get us" during the la riots lol. her, my last grandparent, my maternal grandma died a few months ago and out of 9 grandchildren i was the only one there. although she was unconscious i needed to know i did right by her and if she could feel my presence, i needed her to know that all of those hours of fun did right by me and she was part of what made me who i am today.
My Grandparents were awesome. I grew up in the military, so I didnt get to see them often. but when we did, it was like we never were apart. Both Grandpas passed when I was young, but I got to spend more time with my Grandmas. Both were AMAZING ladies, full of life and always had advice.
Everything!
Oh, this made me a little jealous of anyone who still has grandparents. I miss mine.
My grandparents passed away years ago, but I still miss them everyday. They were both truly amazing. My grandma was sweet and always made me feel at home. My grandpa was not a conversationalist but just being in his presence was enough. I will always miss our long walks together.
I loved all the photos... such great stories in each one. I never knew any of my grandparents - they were gone before I was born or they lived far away and died when I was very young. I've always had a grandparent-shaped hole in my being and it gets filled up a little bit each time I see pics like these or I'm around other people's grandparents and get to see them interact with their grandchildren. Thanks for posting these photos today... they're all beautiful!
This past week, my dear grandmother buried her partner of nearly 60 years. She stayed by his side until the very end and held his hand while he passed on peacefully. Their love for each other and their love for our family is what makes both of them so beautiful to me.
My grandma was my example on earth of unconditional love. Miss her every day. Grandma's best advice to me was, "sometimes it's better to just keep your mouth shut." Some of the best advice ever given to me and at the same time some of the hardest for me to follow.
My grandmother was my favorite person. She loved me no matter what silly, stupid, impulsive, AD/HD thing I did. And I did a lot of them. She walked with me and loved me for who I am. She made me smile and I remember making cookies with her. When my family moved to Greece, she was sick and we didn't know. She died while I was on the other side of the world. I was 9. I have thought about her a lot in the 20+ years. What would she think of me? Of my kids? And then quietly I know she would love me still like she loved me then as well as my kids. That was just her way
My Papa "took his thumb off" too! :-) My Nana told me when I was nineteen "some people are bisexual, you know. I think you are." I cried in relief. My grandfather was an amazing gardener of flowers and of the soul. My grandmother loved to shop for clothes--for us...she bought hers through the mail. I miss them.
All of them! Grandpa in the hospital bed with the twins got the tears started. <3 What beautiful images, Dan!
Everything! My grandpa was always telling jokes to the neighborhood kids, even though it embarrassed me to no end! He would always "take his thumb off." I told my Grandma once that I wanted to travel the world and see amazing things. Even though she was over 60, whenever I went to visit her, she would drive an take me places. We drove from Michigan to Niagara Falls one year, and to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky another year. And they both visited almost every year, even though they lived in Michigan and us in Hawaii. They had a ton of grand kids and they made sure that we each knew how much we were loved. I miss them every day.
When my grandparents would dance; in the house, out on the town, at a party. The look they had in their eyes and smiles on their faces. Love like that is rare and it was beautiful. Their dancing was beautiful.
What didn't? ;) mine were nothing short of amazing!
The question, "What makes your Grandparents beautiful?" is not a simple one for me. I sit here at 40 years old with a letter on my desk, in a frame that my Grandfather wrote to my Grandmother while they were in middle school. It asks, "Do you love me? Tell me to-morrow nite after school." They fell in love he always told me, when she was only four and moved in next door to his family. They survived WWII, five children and too many grandkids and great- grandkids to ramble off but the greatest love they had, was always for each other.
He was never too macho to admit she still made him smitten after 60 plus years of marriage, taped daily her obsessive viewing of CBS soaps and Jeopardy as a back up and would cook whatever fancied her taste at night. In return, she made fun of his hearing loss, growing stomach and would always whisper to whoever was visiting, "Why is he always so loud? Just because he can’t hear, doesn't mean the rest of us can't!" They were a Yin and Yang who balanced each other out and although rough around the edges, nobody who knew them doubted she was his one and only and he was her everything.
She died first and everyone thought he would not be able to go on without her. He collapsed on her casket at the wake when everyone else had left and only family remained. It took his four grown sons to hold him upright and help him let her go. I have never seen anyone so physically decimated at the loss of a partner, a life mate, a lover or a friend. She was his air, his grounding and his very ability to connect with his life because it was always him and her.
Yet I think the truth was that she would have taken loosing him harder if it had been reversed. He was the vessel that allowed her to accept love without question and truthfully, he spoiled her with tokens of affection and I cannot imagine her getting out of bed without her grapefruit, prepped and in a bowl waiting next to her crossword puzzle, neatly folded with a pen nearby and cup of coffee. She prepared him, as well as all of us, to accept that cancer would steal her from us. She knew each one of us wanted to fight reality, especially him. As hard as that was, he needed her acceptance to forgive himself for being the one left behind and he would never have been able to do that for her. The hurt it would have caused her would have been too much for him.
What makes them beautiful is not simple because love never is. It is holding onto each other because you want to, not because you have to. It is loving and laughing and forgiving and believing the best moments are when you are together. It is embracing the sorrowful times in life, with one another, a united front. It is becoming a better self because of who you love and are loved by daily. They were a gift to their family. They gave all who knew them the ability to believe in marriage and what selfless love is all about.
That is pretty beautiful.
75 years of marriage ...frozen date cookies ...stray cats... the potting wheel, everything.
their neverending stories :)
My grandmother has always been there for me. Even if she didn't agree with my decisions, I always felt she still loved me no matter what I did, unconditionally. :-)
My grandma supported her family by taking in foster children, and housing single pregnant mommies, in a respectful, non-judgemental way. That was in the 50's to 70's... she rocked;-)
There personalitys nd how my gpa was like a dad figure 2 me nd my sis cuz we dnt hve a day growin up. gma how much she cared about every 1 she died 3 yrs ago :c i miss her
All of grandparents all over the world are beautiful, because they are great and awesome....
Nope can't pick one this week...tears flowing this week....everyone tells a wonderful story!!
I loved each and every picture, but the grandpa in the hospital bed with the twins started the tears rolling. Thanks for sharing these amazing photos!
Terri