We went to the Emerald Village Mine up around Spruce Pine for Isaac’s birthday.

I showed Sparrow a geode when we were there….showed her how the “jewels” were inside the rough rock.

There’s some real beauty in some of that roughness.

I don’t think I’d know a geode if I tripped over one.

I only would recognize it if the jewels were somehow revealed.

Today, Jenny went to the laundromat to do a bunch of laundry.

Our dryer is broken….and the washer broke, too.

It’s hard to do laundry at home when the tools we use are busted.

Sparrow was playing in one of the baskets under a folding table, and this woman who was working on her laundry nearby bent down in Sparrow’s face and said, “YOU ARE A NOISY LITTLE GIRL AND YOU HURT MY EARS!!!”

Of course, Sparrow started to cry and (I was so proud of her) Jenny had to give that woman an earful about how inappropriate it was to talk to someone else’s child like that.

It makes me angry just to think about that situation.

Of course, the woman cowed under the attentions of an angry mother.

It’s easier to confront a relatively helpless 2-year-old.

That’s what a bully does….they attack the ones they think are helpless.

Man….that woman is a real turd for talking to my little princess like that.

I was thinking about how it’s easy to love the lovable, though, on my way home….but that it’s really hard to love the people who interact with us in repulsive ways.

I don’t know how to do that.

I get my back up sometimes.

I want to do battle with the ones who hurt the ones I love.

I don’t know that this woman had any jewels inside her.

Maybe jewels can grow under the right circumstances?

All I saw was rough and common.

How do you love beyond the pain that sad people can bring to your life?

Again….I don’t know.

I do know that if you mess with my people, you’re going to get pounded if you don’t watch it.

How Christian is that?

Geodes are kind of cool.

I should work at remembering the potential in some of these mean people.

Maybe that lady was shiny on the inside?

Nah. She was a turd.

Weirdo.

Shut your mouth, weirdo, or next time you’re going to get a pounding.

That’s not Christian….but it’s a promise.