I Just Want to Take Care of Him

While the boys were fishing and I was doing what I do best–observing–my little girls were digging for worms.  This is more amazing than the simple sentence might suggest. 

My girls are four and they are the of the polar opposite twin variety.  My littlest, Logan, is a china doll come to life.  She is dainty with alabaster porcelain skin.  Her hair is captured morning light.  She is far more fine boned than anyone in our family.  Her sensibilities are also much finer than her mother’s ever were.  And, so long as she is not crossed, she is comprised of sweetness, softness and snuggle.

Then there is Jesse, who is mostly tomboy.  She is built for the long haul and typically lumbers more than walks.  She is speed and joy and fun personified.  She defines ebullience and shadows her older brother who often seems more her twin.

That’s why it was so funny to see BOTH girls diligently digging for worms.  They would catch them and run them across the yard to the dock with a mix of excitement, pride and still a touch of revulsion at the crawling sensation in their palms.  It went on that way for a bit…until they began uncovering some especially tiny worms.

Jesse held her offering up to me with both palms, but seemed a little frozen.  I asked her if she was going to go ahead and put it in the jar.  Her face darkened and she answered, “I just want to take care of him.”  So without further discussion, my two little ladies proceeded to liberate all of our worms.  The ones they had found, the ones I had found…not a single worm lost its life after my daughters’ revelation.

I was proud of their dirty fingernails and their beautiful hearts.

~ by nonamiss on May 1, 2008.