Hello, Sugar

Texas. Technically, I think we are part of the “southwest.” However, depending on which area of Texas you visit, your experience will be very different. Visit the piney woods of East Texas, and you’ll encounter a more southern hospitality feel with accents that vary significantly from the western Big Bend area of Texas, where southwestern culture hits its peak. We are a state mixed with many cultures, accents, and sayings. Are we southern? Are we Southwestern? Eh, we are just Texas. That’s the easiest way to sum it up.

Now to touch on the “southern” side of Texas – we like pet names. I’m not talking about the names you give to Fido. I’m talking about all those random names we use in general conversation. We could be conversing with loved ones or strangers. The pet names are used very indiscriminately. In most of my interactions, the older person uses the pet names in the conversation to address the younger person.

Sugar, Honey, Pumpkin, Sweetheart, Lovey, Bunny – I bet you thought I was starting to share a recipe for a second. Lol, Wrong blog. No recipe, just adorable pet names.

My go-to names are Sweetheart or Darling. However, Darling is never said that way. It’s pronounced Darlin’. You can also lay the Darlin’ on even thicker, as my mother does, by going for the ever-so Shakespearean feel of Darling Darling. Only she uses the southernized version, Dar Dar.

My most favorite pet name to use is Darlin’heart. I don’t know where I got it, but it rolls off the tongue nicely and sure is fun to say. I consider it the diamond of all the pet names.

However, there is another side to the pet name coin. The Ma’am/Sir side. Once your coin finally lands on the Ma’am/Sir side your encounters with the precious pet names above become less frequent.

One day there was a young man at my front door. I don’t remember if he was delivering a package or doing some work on the property, but he was just a polite as he could be, and I think he called me Ma’am no less than 10 times in a relatively short amount of time. Had my pet name coin finally made the flip to the Ma’am/Sir side? I remember thinking, “When did I become a Ma’am?”

How about you? Has your coin flipped to the Ma’am/Sir side?

Can I tell you something?

Whether you have gone from Darlin’ to Ma’am, or from Son to Sir, you are still a child of God. Our roles, and experiences, on this earth change, but our relationship to our Father in heaven remains the same. We are His children, and that means He speaks to us using all the best pet names. He will never see us as Ma’am or Sir. We will always be God’s Darlin’heart.

Now, that’s something worth remembering, sugar.