This past weekend, a friend and I took a 28 hour whirlwind trip to Providence for the Living Proof Live conference. It was, as my friend had warned me it would be, an emotional roller-coaster…and everything I had hoped for. But that’s not really the point of this story.
My friend is a true southern girl, although she’s able to blend in quite nicely with ‘normal’ New England folk. However, we met up at the conference with my friend’s fresh-from-the-south, in-the-middle-of-her-move-to-New-England soul sister. When the two of them got together, the southern twang just rolled right off their tongues, although I didn’t give it much of a conscious thought. Then, since – obliviously to me – this was a weekend for southern accents, we spent 7 hours (give or take) listening to Beth Moore boom her sweet southern voice across the convention center.
Now understand, I am not a southern girl by birth. And although I have spent some time in the south, it has rarely been enough to influence my speech. So, I enjoyed listening to the conversations and didn’t think much more about it…until, I returned home.
Now don’t ya’ll worry, everything was just fine once I hurried on home. I received a very enthusiastic greeting from my son while I was still in the process of opening the door and spent the rest of the evening enjoying some slower moments with my kids and hubby. Fun, simple, quiet.
That night, as my sweetie patiently listened to my exuberant stories of Beth’s teaching and the praise team’s worship, it popped out. I didn’t mean for it too. It just happened. I drawled a word…and then another one. I realized what I had done but thought maybe it was too slight for my sweetie to notice.
But then it happened again, and he did notice! A smirk played across my sweetie’s lips and he said with a twinkle in his eye, “I do believe that was a bit of southern twang in your voice.” I burst into giggles and immediately confessed to him that I had heard it in my voice as well but had thought he might not notice. Alas, I…I had a southern twang!
Sadly, two days later, I hear no more southern charm in my mid-western accent. *sigh* It’s all for the best…I suppose.
