“Beautiful has nothing to do with looks. It’s who you are as a person, and how you make people feel about themselves.”

Today is Remembrance Day: a sad and painful day for so many people as they think about the losses they’ve experienced due to war.

Some people were maimed, and some were scarred and changed forever by things they heard and saw, by the traumatic memories.

And in the last two months, I’ve experienced loss as well. I’ve lost two family members who had meant a lot to me. And I’m sure that you’ve lost people, friends and family that you loved. Their death has left a void, a space that no-one else can fill.

And when we think about these people, we don’t think about their looks – for we all know, in the end, that kind of beauty’s just skin deep.

But the beauty that endures is…

A mother’s love endures through all.

A kind heart is a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity freshen into smiles.

American Washington Irving (1783-1859) ranks as one of his country’s most renowned authors.  His amazing short stories of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleeping Hollow” remain all-time classics.  Ironically, his final resting place is at the Sleeping Hollow Cemetery in New York state.