What was the most important decision you ever made, and why?
Diamond, as was her custom, woke before her husband, and, as had become her habit since marrying Pippin Took, she lay still next to him and watched him sleep. She almost always woke up before he did and she cherished these quiet, serene moments in which she could just gaze at him and wonder what the new day would bring for them both.
Diamond had grown so accustomed to waking up with Pippin in her bed that she could hardly remember her life before she'd married him. Her whole life before that seemed almost like a dream to her sometimes, or like a story that she'd told herself that had led her to irrevocably to this moment in time, and to this hobbit and only him. Of course life hadn't been that way at all. Every day of her life she had made a series of decisions that had brought her here, but any one of those decisions could have directed her path away from him. She could have led a wholly different life without him and she would never have known it. Diamond mused on the odd chain of unrelated decisions had brought her to this moment. There was the day when she’d been only ten years old and she'd decided not to go skating with her friends Taffy Proudfoot and Tan Stillwater. The ice on that pond had given way, and both of them had drowned, while she had been safe at home. There was the day when she was fifteen, and she had decided not to go and live with her cousins in Michael Delving and so stayed in Long Cleeve, where she had been ultimately been wooed by Pippin. Who know who she might have met in Michael Delving? And then there was the tearful day she decided that she would not marry Bram Boggs, as everyone had apparently expected.
But the most important decision of all was the day that she said yes to Pippin Took when he had asked if she would dance with him at the Midyear's Day party that first year following the War. Though it would be years yet to come before they actually married, that dance had been the first in a series of moments that had brought her and Pippin closer and closer together until now, their lives were hopelessly tangled up together. That decision had made her later decision to say yes to his proposal so easy. From that moment, she had known that she would have Pippin in her life somehow, either as friend, lover, husband… or all of the above. She looked at him now as he was stirring and thought, "Oh yes, friend, lover, and husband." All because she had said yes to an invitation to dance.
Diamond had grown so accustomed to waking up with Pippin in her bed that she could hardly remember her life before she'd married him. Her whole life before that seemed almost like a dream to her sometimes, or like a story that she'd told herself that had led her to irrevocably to this moment in time, and to this hobbit and only him. Of course life hadn't been that way at all. Every day of her life she had made a series of decisions that had brought her here, but any one of those decisions could have directed her path away from him. She could have led a wholly different life without him and she would never have known it. Diamond mused on the odd chain of unrelated decisions had brought her to this moment. There was the day when she’d been only ten years old and she'd decided not to go skating with her friends Taffy Proudfoot and Tan Stillwater. The ice on that pond had given way, and both of them had drowned, while she had been safe at home. There was the day when she was fifteen, and she had decided not to go and live with her cousins in Michael Delving and so stayed in Long Cleeve, where she had been ultimately been wooed by Pippin. Who know who she might have met in Michael Delving? And then there was the tearful day she decided that she would not marry Bram Boggs, as everyone had apparently expected.
But the most important decision of all was the day that she said yes to Pippin Took when he had asked if she would dance with him at the Midyear's Day party that first year following the War. Though it would be years yet to come before they actually married, that dance had been the first in a series of moments that had brought her and Pippin closer and closer together until now, their lives were hopelessly tangled up together. That decision had made her later decision to say yes to his proposal so easy. From that moment, she had known that she would have Pippin in her life somehow, either as friend, lover, husband… or all of the above. She looked at him now as he was stirring and thought, "Oh yes, friend, lover, and husband." All because she had said yes to an invitation to dance.