The Madonna

As I walk by the cabinet in the dining room, she stares at me as I pass. She sits high on top of the cabinet. Sometimes I forget that she is there. The term Madonna means, my lady. She represents love, compassion and virtue.

A few years ago my husband and I went to look for parts for his car at a meet in Pennsylvania. There were rows and rows of vendors. I love to tag along because mixed in with car parts, vendors will bring random items to sell. I’ve found cookware, bicycles, motorcycle helmets, canvas, vintage jewelry and other items at these meets.

We walked up and down the rows looking for items of interest. We walked up to a table loaded with random car parts and building materials. In the middle of the pile of paint brushes, hammers, spark plugs and headlights sat a chipped, dusty Madonna. We started to chat with the vendor and he told us he was from Ohio. He was six foot, blonde, talkative and friendly. He told us about his day, the items that he had sold and what he liked about selling items.

We shifted through items on his table and talked as we looked. Do you see anything you want he asked? My husband looked at some new paint brushes on the table and asked what he wanted for them and paid him. As we were about to leave, he plucked the Madonna out of the pile and held her out to me. For you, here you go, take her. I stared at her in his outstretched arms, unsure. I do not belong to any church. I believe in natural law. Should I take her I thought??

You could paint her my husband suggested. You can touch up the missing paint spots. Take her the man said, she doesn’t belong here. Oh, I had to smile, how did you get her? A house clean out after someone passed. The family hired me to take what was left. It would be bad luck to take money for her. I want you to have her. I looked at my husband and he nodded his head and so I took the Madonna from the vendors outstretched arms and folded her into the cradle of my arm.

She has lived with us in two homes now and she will travel to the next with us. They say that statues and objects carry the energy of their previous owners with them. She has good energy and seems to radiate light. I never painted her to cover the chips, she is perfect the way she is. This is the way it is, we all are chipped from our journeys in someway. Yet, we are all divine.