thoughts, words, deeds

troubling smiles

Let's see where your creative genius takes you with this quote by Leonardo Da Vinci. Begin what ever you write with "I love those who can smile in trouble… "

I love those who can smile in trouble. I have several of them in my family, of course. The ones who grin grins that look like they were mirrored off of little imps from hell. I don't have children of my own, but I've seen those smiles on my sister Madeline's face when she used to stand in the doorway and look and Mama and Mama would open her eyes wider and shake her head no and count her fingers, 1, 2, 3, and Madeline would grin even wider and scamper off.

Mad hit the terrible twos at eighteen months and then spent the next year or so of life trying her hardest to kill herself--not directly, of course. With mischief.

I see the same look on little Eddie's face when he is standing by a door we've told him not to open. He is gifted at opening doors and climbing fences, and ending up down the road a ways. But we know just when he's plotting another escape attempt. It's in that smile.

I see it at church. There's a family--the father is my brother's age, the mother is a good friend, and they have four--two boys and two girls. Now, they may not be plotting anything, but whenever I see their faces (even the baby) and their smiles, I can see that they have the potential for mischief, and it makes me smile and want to gather them in for a hug and possibly get out a camera to record what happens next. After all, with a smile like that, something is going to happen . . .

Of course, this probably twisted the original quote into something I wanted to talk about. After all, in trouble doesn't mean as they cause trouble . . . but then again, maybe it should.