I was weeding around my oregano plant in the garden the other day. Gracie (5) was helping me, offering to pull up every weed she saw, whether they were valuable plants or not. ;) As usual, she was full of quaint little observations, but I was entirely unprepared for what popped out of her mouth. The Question of a lifetime.
"Rachie, when are you goin' to get married?"
I smiled at her and continued pulling the weeds out of the herbs. "Whenever God brings the right guy along." I looked sideways at her. Her little baby-face was studiously turned toward the task at hand, the picture of innocence. "How do you think I ought to find a husband, Lumpy?" I asked, eager to see what wisdom might fall from her sweet rosebud mouth.
She tossed her head back, rolled her eyes in the manner that is peculiarly hers, and grinned so that she showed every dimple in her face. "I fink Mom should take you to The City." (Since she's grown up living in the countryside, going To Town is a big ordeal, and The City a thing to be discussed for ages to come.) "You should leave the van on the sidewalk and then get out and walk around. You'll just find a man and he'll come back to the van with you and Mom and kiss you on the lips." (Her idea of getting married. A kiss is a covenant-sealer :)
I sat there, hand suspended in the air with a clump of green weeds dangling from it. Grace still looked as she had before--a sweet, dimpled, plump little girl with a heck of a smile. But this time there was a tinge of mischief lurking in those dimples. I laughed, and she laughed with me. The laugh of a little imp who knew she'd made a triumph.
....if only it were that simple. ;)
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