Inveterate

Word of the Day Sunday, March 07, 2010

inveterate

\in-VET-uhr-it\ , adjective;

1. Firmly established by long persistence; deep-rooted; of long standing.
2. Fixed in habit by long persistence; confirmed; habitual.

She sat as quietly as she could and summoned every ounce of will power she could conjure not to swing her legs as they dangled from the pew a good foot above the floor.

The preacher droned on and on, the only other sound the rustling of hymn books and the occasional shushing of mothers quieting their children.

The sunlight slid through the stained glass windows spilling color over the congregation. She studied the red and blue light on the top of Mr. Danielson's bald head and his fat wife's neck, and thought about how beautiful they looked having been splashed with God's rainbow. "The human race sure would be beautiful if God had made the sky a stained glass window," she thought silently.

In the midst of her rainbow colored day dreams she had started swinging her legs again, although the slightest movement from her grandmother, a gesture so inveterate within both of them, brought her leg to a sudden halt.

She had always liked going to church, the white noise of the preacher giving her the chance to have an hour within her own thoughts undisturbed. Of course, she never understood what the adults were talking about when they praised or disagreed with what the preacher was saying. She had remembered her surprise the first time she learned that people actually came to church for the sermon and not for rose colored view of mankind.