Neely Young: A Living Parable

This month of December brings us the season of Christmas. My columns during the year focus on serious subjects: Storm clouds on the horizon for Georgia, including threats of war, poultry industry troubles, jobs, the economy and other warnings of dread.

This is part of our mission, and the mission of all good journalism. Yet we also like to focus on the good side of life in Georgia, and we try to do it well.

Each year at this time I like to put away the more serious side of my commentary and present a story of inspiration and goodness.

People love to watch the seasons change, and we are blessed in Georgia to have four distinct seasons. We watch winter with its first freeze thaw into spring, which warms into summer, soon visited by a cool autumn, which turns into winter as the cycle begins again.

So it is with life and its seasons. To describe this cycle, we present a tale of motherhood, a story written in 1933 by novelist Temple Bailey. You will be inspired by A Little Parable for Mothers:

The young mother set her foot on the path of life. “Is the way long?” she asked.

And her guide said, “Yes, and the way is hard. And you will be old before you reach the end of it. But the end will be better than the beginning.”

But the young mother was happy, and    she would not believe that anything could   be better than these years. She played with her children and gathered flowers for them along the way, and swam with them in the clear streams; and the sun shone on them  and life was good.

And the young mother cried, “Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.”

Then night came, and a storm, and the path was dark and the children shook with fear and cold, and the mother drew them close and covered them with her mantle and the children said, “O, Mother, we are not afraid for you are near, and no harm can come.”

And the mother said, “This is better than the brightness of the day. For I have taught my children courage.”

And the morning came, and there was a hill ahead and the children walked and grew weary, and the mother was weary; but at all times she said to her children, “A little patience, and we are there.”

So the children climbed, and when they reached the top they said, “We could not have done it without you, Mother.”

And later when the mother lay down at night, she looked up at the stars and said, “This is a better day than the last, for my children have learned fortitude in the face of hardness. Yesterday I showed them courage, today I have given them strength.”

And the next day came strange clouds, which darkened the earth, clouds of war and hate and evil. And the children groped and stumbled and the mother said, “Look up, lift your eyes to the light!”

And the children looked and saw above the clouds an everlasting glory, and it guided them and brought them beyond the darkness.

And that night the mother said, “This is the best day of all, for I have shown my children God.”

And the days went on, and the weeks and months and the years, and the mother grew old, and she was little and bent. But her children were tall and strong and walked with courage.

And when the way was rough they lifted her, for she was light as a feather, and at last they came to a hill, and beyond the hill they could see a shining road and golden gates flung wide, and the mother said, “I have reached the end of my journey. And now I know that the end is better than the beginning, for my children can walk alone, and their children after them.”

And the children said, “You will always walk with us, Mother, even when you have gone through the gates.”

And they stood and watched as she went alone, and the gates closed after her. And they said, “We cannot see her, but she is with us still. A mother like ours is more than a memory. She is a living presence!”

As we cycle through this year, we at Georgia Trend wish you all a very happy holiday season and prosperous new year.