I Captured it in My Mind's Eye, Though, and I Don't Think I'll Ever Forget It. Unless My Brain Crashes.

I hope y'all enjoyed your Mothers' Days, whether you are a mother, or have a mother, or love a mother, or couldn't care less about mothers but love you a beautiful spring Sunday. Mine was perfect, and comin' from a perfectionist like me, that's sayin' sumpm. I got flowers and cards and lunch out and Al grilled steaks Saturday night and served me red wine and Hershey's chocolate for dessert and told me we're going on another beach vacation in September and my children gave me a nice wad of spendin' money at Target (so young, yet they GET me so well already.)

But the sweetest gift I got for Mothers' Day I didn't get until yesterday, and it wasn't bought, or wrapped, and it didn't come on a tray with a dandelion and some grass in a paper cup. Nope, this one just appeared before me yesterday on my morning walk, and had tears rolling down my cheeks for blocks after I saw it.

I took both kids with me on the walk, in their double stroller. They rode along side by side, Bean keepin' up constant commentary about the sun, and the sky, and every dog we passed by (we are in the "I want a puppy!" phase, already, and thus we rattle off the standard, "Can we get a puppy NOW please Mama? PLEASE?" conversation just about every minute-and-a-half, which you know I just treasure. TREASURE, people. Not.) and Peabody's head just a'pivotin' and a'swivelin' around on that precious neck of his, under his little sunhat with the sea turtle on the front and the little chin strap under his round little chin, which is beside the point but oh, that blue chin strap on that round little chin, people. Sigh. That boy can rock a chin strap.

Anyway they're riding along keeping each other company and I keep asking Bean, "Is Peabody still awake?" "Ye-es," she answers each time until we get about 15 minutes from home and I ask her again and she looks carefully and says, "Um. Nope."

CURSES. This means he'll Abort Nappy in about 15 minutes and won't sleep again until noon.

And I'm walking along pushin' and fumin' and tryin' to re-plan the day around this new development when I look down and what I see wipes every bit of frustration and irritation and me-centric thinkin' right outta my head. And OH, I wish I'd had my camera with me because describing it in words isn't gonna make YOU cry, though you certainly would have had you seen what I saw with your own eyes.

Down there, in front of me, in the stroller, sat my two children. Bean had gently wrapped her arm around her baby brother and pulled him close so that his sleepy little head lay against her shoulder. Her hand lay softly open, cupping his shoulder, just perfectly still but with this purposeful and protective posture. I've never seen anything that portrayed her love for him quite like it. Usually her loving him comes in these strong and almost-aggressive waves, where she throws herself on him with kisses and tickles until he tumbles over, stunned and giggling.

But this gesture. Her little white cable-knit-sweater-clad arm and that little hand on her baby brother's shoulder?

Oh, my people.

It totally captures one of the things I wish most in this world for my children. That they will have THAT relationship. That love, that gentleness, that protectiveness for one another. That no matter what happens in their lives, they will each always have the other to laugh with and lean on.

(And I also wish that Peabody's head will stay small enough to wear the blue sea turtle hat with the chin strap until he's 40 or I'm dead, whichever comes first. Thank you very much. The end.)


Y'all can subscribe to FriedOkra's feed here.