A Merry Heart

 

Proverbs 17:22  A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

 

 

A little girl is wildly laughing; her mother, however, is not; she is upset and barking orders in Mende to the amused child.  I turn my attention from my work to see what the fuss is all about and there is the pair gazing up into the sky.

 

 

 

Riding high on the wings of a micro-twister, a dust devil, is the family’s laundry.  Having been spread on the ground and nearby shrubs to dry in the blazing sun, the unanchored clothing became fair game to the teasing twister.  Though she was speaking Mende, I quickly caught the command of the distressed mother: “Go retrieve our laundry!”  Still laughing and following the path of the twister, the child happily skipped off to pick up the scattered pieces of her meager life.  In frustration, the perturbed mother simply sat down.

As I consider the scene before me, a simple yet profound lesson is revealed.  Two people facing the same difficulty but with very different responses.  Sometimes dust devils blow into my life and take things in a direction I wasn’t expecting.  While I may not have much to say about the circumstances, my response is up to me and is a reflection of the condition of my heart.  Oh, for the heart of a child which can face the challenges of life with humor, eagerness, and the thrill of adventure.

P.S. When dust devils blow through my number one priority is closing windows.  I haven’t had the opportunity to photograph one so the pictures included here are, sadly, not mine.