The Lady’s Bonnet

The Lady’s Bonnet

There once was a beautiful lady,

The most lovely you ever did see.

And though she is missing her bonnet,

She’s still perfectly lovely to me.

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a very special lady.

She was beautiful, with soft, pale cheeks, and pink roses in her hair.  She smiled and whistled when it was time for tea.  She was the loveliest china teapot you ever did see.

In fact, the lady was perfectly happy in every way except for one thing.  She had no bonnet to match her lovely pink roses and china face.  Someone had thrown her away because she was incomplete, and she still remembered it.

And even though she got to grace the most beautiful tables imaginable– tables laden with cheery little fruit tarts and sunny pieces of decadent sponge cake, she always hid her pretty face because she didn’t feel good enough.  She never felt pretty without her matching lid, with the pretty golden edges and little roses around the handle.

Truth be told, she spent a lot of time worrying that she wasn’t good enough.  She felt broken– incomplete.  She thought that because she didn’t look like all the other beautiful china teapots– with their flawless faces and perfect, complete bodies, that she wasn’t beautiful.  Instead of seeing the blush of pink on her face, so lovely in the afternoon sun, she saw only the flaws.  And it made her sad.

The more time that passed and the more she thought about it, the more she felt like hiding her beautiful face altogether.  She stopped seeing the beauty in the flowers all around her.  She stopped feeling the sun on her face.  All she could see was her own flaws– her own weaknesses– her own shortcomings.  She felt ashamed of her mistakes.

But then one day someone unexpected found her. This person, much like the teapot, was a lady who wasn’t perfect– no one is, though some hide it better than others.  This person immediately saw the teapot’s beauty . . . and picked her up with a smile.  “What a beautiful teapot!  She is perfect!”

“But what about the lid,” said someone else.  “This teapot doesn’t have a lid.  It is useless.”

The new owner smiled at the Lady, and didn’t even seem to hear.  “I don’t think she is useless at all.  I think she is perfect just the way she is.  I have the perfect job for her.”

The owner bought the teapot and took her home to love her forever.

The owner gently washed the dust from the Lady’s china face.  She wiped away the years of hurt and neglect and put the Lady in the sunshine to dry. She filled her with fresh, pink roses from the garden.  She invited the Lady to tea as the guest of honor.

Among all the pretty china teacups, and beautiful fruit tarts, and handsome sandwiches, the Lady started to feel self conscious again.  “What am I doing here?” she wondered.  “I have mistakes.  I don’t belong.  I am a failure.  I don’t deserve to be here, among all these beautiful things.”

But the Lady’s new owner smiled.  “All of us have made mistakes. None of us is perfect.  It is our imperfections which make us unique and special. They make us what we are.  Each of us belongs, and each of us is beautiful just the way we are.”

“If you had your bonnet, then our table would never have been able to enjoy the way that you share the roses so beautifully.  You are able to do a very special job for us because you don’t have a hat.  You are perfect and enough, just the way that you are.  Your job is important, and we are so glad that you are here.”

The little teapot smiled.  She held the flowers beautifully.  She forgot that she didn’t have a hat.  Her beautiful china face shone with happiness.  Her pink roses gleamed.  She did what she could, and she did it beautifully.

And she happily spent the rest of her life among the flowers, doing the best that she could, and smiling in the sunshine.

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

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