Hahaha...Sniff, Sniff

Yesterday was a day of crying and laughing. I cried great, salty tears into my Mini-Wheats in the morning. It was all Heidi's fault:

"...So we will pray every day, won't we, grandfather, and never forget Him again, or else He may forget us."

"And supposing one does forget Him?" said the grandfather in a low voice.

"Then everything goes wrong, for God lets us then go where we like, and when we get poor and miserable and begin to cry about it no one pities us, but they say, You ran away from God, and so God, who could have helped you, left you to yourself."

The grandfather walked on for a little while without speaking, then he said, as if following his own train of thought: "And if it once is so, it is so always; no one can go back, and he whom God has forgotten, is forgotten for ever."

"Oh, no, grandfather, we can go back, for grandmamma told me so, and so it was in the beautiful tale in my book--but you have not heard that yet; but we shall be home directly now, and then I will read it you, and you will see how beautiful it is."

[She reads to him the story of the Prodigal Son.]

A few hours later, as Heidi lay fast asleep in her bed, the grandfather went up the ladder and put his lamp down near her bed so that the light fell on the sleeping child. Her hands were still folded as if she had fallen asleep saying her prayers, an expression of peace and trust lay on the little face, and something in it seemed to appeal to the grandfather, for he stood a long time gazing down at her without speaking. At last he too folded his hands, and with bowed head said in a low voice, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee and am not worthy to be called thy son." And two large tears rolled down the old man's cheeks.

Early the next morning he stood in front of his hut and gazed quietly around him. The fresh bright morning sun lay on mountain and valley. The sound of a few early bells rang up from the valley, and the birds were singing their morning song in the fir trees. He stepped back into the hut and called up, "Come along, Heidi! the sun is up! Put on your best frock, for we are going to church together!"

There. That's how it should work. A person repents, and surrenders his life to God, and CHANGES. Transformation - it's a beautiful thing!

And it makes me cry.

I laughed until I cried a little later. BUT I CAN'T TELL YOU WHY. I'm really tempted...maybe...oh, how I want to...nope, better not - somehow it'll get back to...so I'll just say I laughed 'til I cried, and then 'til I gagged. I laughed off and on about it the rest of the day, and last night, in bed, with Mike gently snoring beside me, I got the giggles again. ONE DAY I'll share that story...

As Flutterbug and I drove home from dinner with friends, we had one of our laughing fits. I believe it started over a misunderstood comment about a burp and it degenerated into shrieking, screaming, can't-catch-my-breath belly laughter. I was bawling like a baby.

I wish laughing and crying burned more calories. I would be thin as a stick, I tell you, thin as a stick.