I's awfully proud ya come a callin'. My dear Mia is a peculiarly curious young woman, and each time we meet, she has half a dozen questions puttin' her in a tizzy. Most of my learnin' she be seekin' is herb and healin' know-how, but there's also queries about just livin'. She calls my advice, pearls of wisdom, but it's simply horse sense. Do pull up a stump and rest yo' feet, while I fetch a pitcher of my sweet hibiscus tea.
Folks come from miles around to take a gander at my garden. Window boxes overflow with Indian paintbrush and wine cups, hollyhocks stand as sentinels, and yellow roses blanket my picket fence. When they ask what's the recipe to my success, I say, it's one part breeze off the bayou, two parts manure from the livery stable, and three parts love. The last part, love, being what all livin’ things are most needin'.
I's truly thrown for a loop when Miss Mia asked me what bein' in love was like. Never did reckon to put it into words before that, but this is what I come up with. When ya thoughts just keep going back to that one person, and you's off balance like a spinnin' top, kinda crazy, but ya don’t even care. One moment you’s flyin' high and the next you’s broken. Well, that's not love, it's 'fatuation, and it's over before ya can say Jack Robinson. True love is somethin' deep and lastin'. It's when the happiness of another person is the most important thing in the world to ya. There’s something about love that makes ya overlook the other’s failin's. Ya heard say love is blind, and it’s true. A man who loves ya thinks you’re the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen, even when ya hair's uncombed and your dress a rag. That’s 'cause he sees ya insides, not just ya outsides.Well, I don't mean to spoil Miss Mia's Texas tale by tellin' ya all my secrets. As a slave, I weren't allowed to read nor write, but Mia has read out loud to me, her story, and I'm mighty proud of how she paints a picture with her pen. It's drippin' with history, includin' my dear Klaus' recollection of the Battle of San Jacinto. Hope ya'll enjoy lookin' back at that time, as much as I did.
