Right now, right outside of my front door, there’s a bunch of wild sunflowers. I didn’t plant them or plan for them to be there. They just kinda’ popped up. I walk past them every day on the way out and back in.

Sunflowers hold a special meaning for me. I even have tattoo of one on my left leg. It represents my mother, Sherrie. Sunflowers are her favorite, and I grew up with a kitchen adorned in sunflower imagery. Porcelain stove covers, ever-lasting plastic sunflowers and green vinery atop wall-hung cabinets, decorative jars, fridge magnets, pictures, a painting, and on and on. Sunflowers were all over the kitchen and dining room. Even the linoleum flooring looked like sunflowers after a drink or two.

An additional significance emerge between me and sunflowers in 2018 when I moved from Louisiana to Colorado. I didn’t know this, but August is wild sunflower season in front range of Colorado. I arrived to find sunflowers all over the place, along roadsides and in many yards. Amazing! It’s sometime I had never experienced in Louisiana. And so sunflowers also came to represent the anniversary of my move to the mountains.

Four years later, I’m 31, on the final stretch of earning a Masters degree, living with a loving partner, and it feels like there’s still a whole lifetime ahead. Three decades have passed and there’s hopefully six or more to go. Life is good. I’m happy. There’s much good to come. I’m grateful for where I’m at and what all I’ve accomplished thus far.

As a final and most important note, I want to make special a nod to my mom. The sunflower queen and true southern woman full of heart and never shying away from hard work. Today, August 25th, is her birthday. And though we may be 1,300 miles apart, I’m with her and she is with me.

Much love and many thanks, mom. I appreciate you and all you do. I think about you every day when I walk out and see these sunflowers. They’re bursting with life and color, much as you burst with love and care. Happy birthday.

Love, Cody 🌻💛🙏💛🌻