Today I spent the morning weeding some gardens (again, sigh) and doing a little yard work. After lunch, I mowed the barnyard and the little meadow. After coming in and doing some much needed housework - laundry, dishes and sweeping, I found myself thinking that I needed to keep at it and maybe run the vacuum and do some dusting. Well, the list could just go on forever I thought, couldn’t it! A quick prayer asking what He thought about it, and I immediately found myself saying out loud, “Well then, let’s not and say we did!” So I took a nice hot shower instead, made some fresh iced tea and rested my weary body and spirit for a bit.
When I was about 13 years old, my Grandmother moved from Wyoming to live next to us on our cattle farm in rural Arkansas. From then until I was a young bride of 21, I spent a lot of time with her, reliving the past in her stories, learning something new each time I was with her, and relishing her wit and wisdom. I loved all her humorous quotes that I had never heard before. They always made sense, even if they didn’t. “Let’s not and say we did!” is one of my favorites that she would use often.
In those days we always respected our “elders “ as they were called. You never questioned them, talked back sarcastically and you certainly never sassed an adult, or it would be the last time you did, or would want to. So, whenever I suggested we do something (that naturally I wanted to do) and she thought it better not to, or that we should wait until another time, she never said no, she would simply say, “Well, let’s not and say we did.” This was her kind but firm way of saying “No” and leaving no room for questioning her decision.
Today, many years later, I find myself using her lines quite often. As we get older, we tend to talk to ourselves more and more. I’m pretty sure it’s because we not only “get the right answer” as Grandmother would say, but that we also enjoy the humor of it all. I can still remember her chuckling quite a lot! Grandmothers are happy people and they tend to find the humor in things and make you laugh - even when you don’t want to laugh at yourself.
So, let’s not, and say we did.
~ Gwen of IRISH ACRES