"Paint me a Birmingham"

Triggers. We all have them. It could be a sound, smell, or a song that pops up on the radio...But whatever that trigger may be, it brings us back to a time and place when things were different. Maybe we go back there because deep down we feel there is "unfinished business", or maybe it's just a special time or person that we just don't want to forget.

Today, that very thing happened to me. . . I was driving home from work, and the song "Paint me a Birmingham" came on the radio....and instantly I was in North Alabama in a cold little apartment, heated by innocent love and pure passion. The weekends spent there with him were brief, but very real. At that time I had it all figured out. I had met HIM. There was no one else that could hold a candle to him.  I was the luckiest girl in the world. I was going to marry him. I knew it. We were going to settle down in a small southern town and live happily ever after. But life happened. The road forked, and almost 10 years later we have our own, very different, lives. And occasionally, we reconnect... and if only for a moment...I'm in "my Birmingham".

"Paint me a Birmingham, Make it look just the way it planned, a little house on the edge of town, porch going all the way around. Put her there in the front yard swing....cotton dress, make it early spring. For a while she'll be mine again, if you can paint me a Birmingham"