Cowgirl Manure-Princesses Get A Seat Next to Daddy {An Abstraction on the Truck}

I can hear Daddy tromping quietly as he can through the house, and my young ears are tuned into my father's leaving even in slumber. Sunlight rays hit my blonde locks, and all of the sudden I know it's morning. I know what's coming, and I've caught him before he can make his getaway before the rooster's crow, so I rub sleep out of my eyes and throw the covers back hard.

"Daddy, I'm coming with you!"

He's shoving his brown, weathered boots on, lacing them.

"I'm leaving now; I don't have time."

"Please, Daddy! I can get dressed real quick, I promise!"

My little sister is chiming in now, too; she's three years younger, only about three or four, her dark chocolate hair all disheveled, looking adorable falling around milky chubby cheeks.

He ruffles around for his wallet, looks for keys.

"Alright, alright, if you can be dressed in five minutes, you can go, but that truck is pulling out, whether you're dressed or not!"

A thrill runs through me and I fly to my room, throw on jeans and a t-shirt, frantically look for my socks and shoes.

I know what this means as I dash around: I get to ride in the truck with my Daddy, and feel the hum underneath my bottom, feel the lunge and pull as he changes the gears between my legs, eat ice cream sandwiches with him, drink coke, and play in dirt and hay in sunshine and chase cats in barns.

I run outside and climb up into his pickup truck, which is nothing more than an old blue Chevy-style cab with a white work truck body which holds all his tools. And I love riding in Daddy's truck, because it smells like him, like gasoline, and horses, and sun and sweat. There's horse hair and dirt and grit and I'm a little cowgirl so I don't care. We pull up into this winding gravel drive, out in the country, trees heralding our coming, waving at us along the drive, and my body tingles with excitement to see what kind of place this will be.

He pulls around to the barn, and it's huge, and I love that because that means lots of horses, and a large tack room to explore, and probably cats and maybe, if I'm lucky, even kittens. But then I look out of my window and on the other side of the truck, I can see a huge open field with bales of hay.

Daddy lets us roam free while he shoes the horses, and my sister and I run down a little path from the barn, downhill into the open field, summer sunshine on our face, and we run toward the bales of hay, and I'm thinking I will climb on top and jump from one to the other. They look small and close together from the top of the hill. We get closer and climb and climb with all our might and then see that jumping over to the other one isn't gonna happen. We have our fun with the hay until we're bored with it; the scent of it reminds me of a hundred summers. We run back uphill to a large mound of "dirt" we saw.

We play and play 'til our hearts content in that pile and get as mucky and grimy as we like. Daddy tells us later it was really manure. Tiny cowgirls are like that, see, we're not afraid to get down and dirty.

We trod earth and make our mark and nothing is too big in this open field of life and no hay bale is too high in our mind's eye. Nothing can stop us or stand in our way, and if it tries we'll give it a kick in the pants with our cute, worn-in cowgirl boot.

We stomp this ground, make it our own, and climb the mucky manure mounds to get to the ones we love, to save them, we would climb over a thousand of them, and we do our native-dance that tells the story of how our hearts are tied to this land. It rips out of us in an unbridled, involuntary way, because it's nothing we control--it's the way we were born. It's where we were born.

I've made this land mine for the day, though it belonged to someone else, and it's made me. It's become apart of me, the red earth, the thick scent of it in my bones, the sunshine warm on me and it's all I ever wanted, to run free in a field, to be one with the dust from which I come.

When it's time to go, after Daddy's packed up all the tools, and we've petted all the horses in their stalls, been brave enough to rub their soft, silky mouths, we jump back up into the truck. I ride by Daddy. You know, Father doesn't care if little girls roll in manure, there is always a seat by Him. He stops and lets me pick out a Mississippi Mud ice cream sandwich, my favorite. I feel Daddy changing the gears between my knees, moving them in rhythm, I'm anticipating the next gear change. I hear it grinding up and he pushes, clicks it into place again and now I can relax my small, bony knees.

I watch Daddy's big, strong, calloused hands, his fingers so thick, his fingernails bruised and pieces of nail missing, and I know it's from all the hard work, the toiling to make a way for us.

My sister licks her ice cream beside me. The hot southern summer sun beats down, the wind blows hard in the windows as we fly down the highway, and I feel like a princess next to Daddy, a cowgirl manure-princess.

Gratitude: {even when it's hard--especially when it's hard}

all of my family being in church together, three generations--grandparents, parents, and my family...

my mother asking me to sit with them on one long pew, though I would prefer to be unseen in the balcony, I make her happy, and it's not that bad...

Easter dinner at my house with my family...

conversation with my Daddy about things important in life...

sunshine in the girls' hair; I never tire of this...

Easter games in the rain made up by my creative daughter....

a rainy afternoon and egg hunt in the house, chocolate "Life" flowerpot cakes for dessert...

our beautiful grace garden and the beautiful little butterflies the girls and I made...

the tiny, miniature clothespins holding them together, reminding me of the frailty of life...







Friends, I appreciate you helping me get the word out about Concrete Words! Be sure to use the hashtag #concretewords. Please use the "Share" feature at the bottom of this post--thanks!  

What this link-up is about: In the lovely Amber Haines' words, we "write out spirit" by practicing writing about the invisible using concrete words. In case you are going "what in the world is a concrete word?!"--this just means use the prompt to write out a story, a memory, a feeling and make me feel what you felt, describe the scene around you, the textures, the emotions, the tastes, smells, the light. Tell me what you touch, see, hear...

A few simple guidelines:  1. Be sure you link up the URL to your Concrete Words
                                             post and not just your blog home page URL.
                                         2. Put a link to this post on your blog so that others 
                                             can find their way back here.
                                         3. Try to visit one or two others and encourage their efforts
                                         4. Please write along with us, using concrete words--
                                             Please no entries with how-to's, advertising, or 
                                             sponsored posts 
                                         5. Consider sharing via social media to help get word out!
**Today's prompt is the Truck. 

Next week, our Concrete Words prompt is the Moon.

**Because of what I shared * here,* I cannot always answer comments and visit very many blogs, but I will do my best to visit those who link up here! I would love for you to feel a sense of community when you are here, and I hope you do feel right at home--I just think--though we all search for so much interaction and approval from others, that sometimes, maybe in some seasons, sometimes very long seasons, just a quiet place is what we truly need. Just a place to reflect, pray, dream. 

I cherish your words, and the beautiful soul God made you. I am nodding my head, teary-eyed, as I read your hearts here. I'd like you to know that when I see you here, my heart just leaps out of my chest to connect with you--to let you know I hear you! And while you leave such sweet words here, I am probably somewhere cleaning a precious 3-year-old baby girls' messes, listening to an eleven year old playwrite's brave words, or teaching my crew. If you are here, know you are loved, and you're the seasonin' in my soup. 

{This post shared with Ann, Jen, Laura, Heather, Emily, and Jennifer for #TellHisStory}

Let's have some fun with concrete words! (You can join in anytime this week until the linky is closed!) **When linking, please check out the one-word prompt first! Thanks!**