Happy Birthday Briana!

To Briana on her 30^th Birthday:

Dearest Briana,

You know that this is an impossible task to undertake don’t you?

To express the deep appreciation, respect, and love that these past fifteen years have afforded us is not something that a man with my rhetorical skills can weave into cognitive expression. So I will not even make the attempt.

What I will do is define who you are to me in one simple sentence:

You are the most precious gift that this world has ever offered to me.

When we met I was in quite the transitional period in my life. I was fourteen years of age and trying to decide which side of the “tracks” I wanted to live on. I was neither a gentleman nor a criminal, but I knew that I had equal tendencies to be one or the other. Once I met you there was no doubt which path was the right one to follow. I was your companion, and you preferred gentlemen, so the high road was where we walked, and we have walked it with style.

You have been there through it all. The good times, the bad, for richer, and now it seems for poorer, and I would put it to you that not even death can separate this union as the laws of attraction will not allow our souls to be apart for any length of time. We have become one.

You are the most precious gift that this world has ever offered to me. Not because of all of the good times, or your ability to make it through the bad. Not because we are all that we have ever known, and most certainly not because of anything you have ever said, done or given to me.

You are the most precious gift that this world has ever offered to me, simple because you have been You.

Everything you do is perfect; everything you say is perfect, everything you think is perfect, because it is You. I am so proud that you are beginning to realize this as well.

I have watched you grow into the most amazing woman. You have made enormous strides toward conquering all of your doubts and fears. You have shown everyone that you are willing to live what you believe rather than what others expect of you. You are amazing. Do you realize this? Absolutely brave, absolutely selfless, and absolutely willing to tune out the world and listen to your true nature.

What have I done to deserve You?

So sweetheart, thirty years have now passed, and there is sure to be 60 or more in the future. So see yourself for what you are in this world. You are like a child taking its’ first steps. You have the rest of your life in front of you, and you have the newfound skill to attack it with charm and vigor.

I cannot wait to see how it turns out…

In love and life, happy birthday!

Matt D