You remind me of everything good... of lazy college afternoons spent lounging in the park with my friends, of innocent and wildly imaginative days spent outside pretending to bring Little House on the Prairie to life in my well-manicured childhood backyard, not a prairie or a bonnet in sight. You remind me of painfully hot summer afternoons that turned into that sticky, sweet feeling of a summer night in small-town Texas, sitting on the backs of trucks in empty parking lots and pastures and backroads. You remind me of the importance of running early in the summer mornings, of bright and hot afternoons throwing the basketball into the hoop out in the driveway, of pedaling as fast as I could down Mississippi street, pretending my yellow bicycle was a car (don't forget to stop at the stop signs and turn your imaginary blinker on, kids). You remind me of days spent at the beach with my family, of playing beneath your long, outstretched rays until mom and dad dragged our worn out bodies and blissfully happy souls back to the condo, where we would immediately fall asleep on the couch as you began to retreat for the night. You remind me of my friends smiling beneath your joyful watch, clinking their glasses together in delight. You remind me of birthdays spent beneath your May warmth, of more birthdays spent beneath your bright, pounding July outstretched arms. You remind me of everything good and happy in this life.
Thank you & I love you.