The Mud Maidens and a Man Child

She grabbed the mud with her little fists and smashed it into her honey colored hair, looking like she smeared  chocolate frosting on herself.  Then she reached her hands towards the bank and scraped off more mud, and threw it into the water.  Her laughter followed the ripples..  She sat with the smooth river rocks touching her bare baby buns, and slid down the river like a slide.

"Welcome to hill-billy Disney Land." My Aunt Julie always sent me a dollar in the mail on my birthday, so it was easy to love her.  When I went to college, she would feed me and let me do laundry at her house.  She even updated my wardrobe from grey tee shirts to some button up ones.  Now that I am a real grown up with children of my own, she is a favorite person.. Someone I want my own children to know.

Today, she took us off-roading to the river.  My two bigger girls stripped down to their underwear and explored the banks of the river, stretching their young legs in the water, delighting in the natural paradise.

I held the baby on the bank of the river and nursed him in the sunshine.  Then I rubbed mud on his toes. He wiggled them.


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