Sun Spots and Sweet Tea

I’m lucky – I know that for sure. My mom is my best friend. I know women who have no relationship with their moms and I can’t even imagine that. I’m not going to even try to start listing all the reasons why we have such a unique relationship but when I hear the phrase “unconditional love” I see my mom. But that’s a story for another day.

Today I just wanted to share a thought I had about something she said recently. We were enjoying a girls day out which always includes shopping. I picked up a shirt that I thought would she would look great in and said “here…you need to get this”. She said “no…I can’t wear sleeveless tops any more...I have all these sun spots”. I told her that was silly and to go try it on. She did and it looked great!

But I couldn’t get that out of my head. Sun spots. She wanted to hide her sun spots. When I lay in bed that night I began to think of all the times we played in the south Texas sun, swinging on the park swings together, making sandcastles at South Padre Island beach, splashing in the ocean. Or the days she’d pack a picnic lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, bar-b-cue potato chips and homemade brownies to eat together sitting on a blanket in our own back yard….or the lazy days of floating down the Rio Frio in our inner tubes. I loved the times I’d come home from school and she‘d say “come on….if we hurry outside we can work on our tan for an hour” and together we’d sit in our lawn chairs and soak up the last rays of sunshine drinking a cold glass of ½ sweet tea and ½ lemonade.

We’ve earned our sunspots and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

John Mayer said it well….’mothers be good to your daughters….girls become lovers who turn into mothers”. I hope when my daughter sees sun spots on my arms…she smiles and remembers……