My name is Hailey Janette Hall and I was born 23 years ago to Kaylen Patterson and Barth Hall. When I was a girl I remember taking a liking to nature and I know it sounds boring but it was the details in life in which I loved.
Thing is, I loved looking at the beautiful things in life but my own reflection wasn't one of them. I found myself befriending everyone just because I always wanted to feel accepted, be accepted. Growing up in a church family had its perks but it seemed it put the focus on everything I did. Would the Lord like this or that? My parents didn't go but my aunt in uncle did because they were the pastors of the church.
This was my mother's side of the family and they were built strong in the Lord from survival, struggle and fighting to get what they needed to be successful, the best way they knew how.
My natural hair and dark skin probably came from my dad's side because my mother's people were all Indian and black. A beautiful combination, in my opinion but it missed me by far. I had the dark skin like I said; the kinky hair and I also seemed to pull from them my ability to follow the bad side in life. Most of my cousin's on that side ended up running the streets, doing whatever to get by and for that, they were labeled.
Not getting away from me, I have lived my life in the shadows of what other's thought of me, not so much of what I thought of myself. I felt like my entire life, so far was a blur and it had no meaning, no purpose. Although I was a child raised in church, to me it felt like something that was spoken to those around me, not myself.
Living in the state of South Carolina wasn't the best place to accomplish much, just mainly live and be comfortable in your own. Jobs were scares and even more, schools for kids were few. I didn't have a job but mainly, I did volunteer work to help my family out in their business. I didn't get paid for it but because it was family, I felt my blessings would come by laboring for the Lord. Needless to say, it was working in a church wearing many hats.
Today the pastor asked all the leaders to come in and have a meeting and I was invited being a part of their ministries. He started off talking about the meeting...
"We have come a long way church!"
He stood with a large grin on his face. The toothy smile I had known since a child. He was married into my family but he had a life changing experience like most people that turned him into a God fearing man.
"Yes we have!" Most spoke, all joining in a chorus as though it was a song we all knew.
I nodded and looked over at my mom, nervously running her hand over the bible. The flat pages meant she was a warm Christian. The Lord speaks of them…how he doesn't want us neither hot nor cold but one way and that was to serve him. For the life of me, I wondered why she came but she was always the type to follow, never lead.
"This year we will be bringing in a few people in to try and make our church better. A long time we've run to one another to build ourselves up and that's great but because me and my wife are old school, we don't really know about the new things out here that will bring other's in." He took the glass his wife handed him as she, being his helpmate knew what he needed.
Our pastor had endured a lot, physical issues tried to come in and take him out but he, with the Lord's hand in his, overcame it.
"I want to introduce someone, a co—worker's son that I know. He will start by taking photos of the church then the people here. We want to get the attention of our community and I'm calling this project the "The Building of His house" .
While I found the name sort of out of date itself, I simply took in a slow breath and smiled as though I always do.
Everyone in the meeting sat in silence, some looked around as if they were waiting for the door to open on either sides but nothing happened until I saw a person stand in the corner and walk over. He turned to face the congregation and instantly, I felt drawn.
His dark eyes, his warm smile but mainly…his eyes.
"Hello, I want to introduce myself." He looked at pastor and he nodded. "I'm Leonardo Venise…but my mom got everyone calling me Leo. My father, like the pastor said here, was a great man. He had a lot in the world but secretly, he put up a lot for the church. When he found out that your pastor, his best bud back in the day, had his very own church, he decided to put everything he had in it, even me. I am now over his estate and if my mother would have had it her way, she would have thrown it all in designer clothing and her luxuries. Like I said, I don't want to come in and make changes from the vision that was set here, I just want to enhance it from the gift that I was given."
"Tell them your gift, son." Pastor smiled and urged him.
The flush over his tan face was evident. He had a shy bone in his body, all of his body.
Shame…but I knew that I am only human so there was no need to feel bad, only at the wrong place and wrong time did I feel it.
"I have an eye for beauty." He looked up from his hands but they landed on something else.
Me.
