Be greedy sometimes. Let the warm summer sun kiss both shoulders. Dive into a mud puddle with reckless abandon, then laugh at the mess you’ve made of everything.

Don’t let your ice cream melt.

Enjoy life. And then enjoy it some more. Get two scoops.

I notice the rain and clouds more than ever. I stand soaked, unprotected, dripping at my front door, almost daily as if my thoughts have become a monsoon of disappointment . I know those days well when everything on you is heavy with saturation. We all know the coldness of snow.

It’s time for me to remember joy. To be childlike and childish again running down Swanson street, in the hot sun of the south, with sticky fingers holding the money grandma gathered together from her purse, in line behind the chorus of black girls and boys all wanting the taste of summer.

I need…