It snowed. A lot, actually. The kind of quiet, magical snow that makes you wonder if life is nothing but a moment frozen in time beneath the glitter of a translucent glass orb. What made the setting more memorable, precious even, was walking beneath the soft sprinkle shoulder to shoulder with my mother, and watching her revel in winter's grandeur for the first time in over a decade.
It is true that I am a child of the sun. My life is an exercise in patience as I wait for those days that my mind treasures as golden. The smell of warm sage brush and fresh jasmine. The serenade of crickets at twilight, the mist of the ocean air wafting inland to rest peacefully over my valley home. I long for the days when your body aches with the chill of an air conditioned room, and by simply stepping outside, you relax under the thick, heady weight of the sun-ripened air wrapping gently around every part of you, like the most comforting blanket nature could ever provide. To me summer is home, and my heart physically aches with longing for those days of flip-flops and freedom.
Perfection. That is what summer means to me.
My mother, however, was raised far away from the Southern California backdrop of my own life. Dividing her first 35 years between Montana, Utah, and Idaho, her mind wanders not to the lush, golden evenings of July, but the brisk, sweet chill of January mornings.
Imagine her quiet glee as we drove north into Salt Lake only to encounter fat, fluffy flakes.
When we reached our restaurant destination, she requested a specific seat just so she could be granted the privilege of watching the world fall dozy under the spell of afternoon snow.
There are thousands of minutes from that day that I will remember for years to come, including the wonderful treats our tongues reveled over continuously. But of all those, I hope that the snow and my mother will be a memory that stands the test of time to one day be passed with loving reverence to my own children, a testament to the gentle, beautiful heart of their grandmother, a woman who's love and friendship I value beyond all others.
Heaven blessed us both that day. She got her snow, and I got her.
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