1. Forty
Reasons I love you

2. Because
when we
first met
you drove
a badass
Mustang

3. You’re
Silly

4. You have Big Attitude
And a COOL STYLE

5. You
Appreciate
the Finer
Things in
Life

6. To you, it was
a no-brainer
to opt for a
deck
hammock
over a cabin
on a local
ferry on the
Amazon

7. Cord’s first
concert was,
of course,
Roger
Waters’ The
Wall

8. You have no
problem
getting under
an old Land
Rover to
check the oil
leak, during
a road trip
through
Tanzania

9. You Drive
A
Hard
Bargain
(for roadside
Maasai blankets)

10. You love
the
dawn

11. You love
the
Lowcountry

12. You look
great in a
Maasai
blanket on a
deserted
stretch of
beach on an
Atlantic
barrier
island.

13. You love
taking self
portraits,
sometimes
with us in
them.

14. You love
taking self-
portraits in
bad ass
locations,
like the
Panamanian
rain forest

15. You love
taking self-
portraits with
imprinted
juvenile
Barred owls,
who thinks
you’ re its
mother.

16. People felt
comfortable
partying in
your
bedroom
during the
annual
Halloween
bash at The
Camp

17. People felt
comfortable
partying
their asses
off at The
Camp at
Christmas
time too.
Really,
anytime,
because you
made that
place a home
for all of us.

18. We make
great
friends
together

19. People Miss You When You Aren’t Around

20. You don’t mind
getting geeky
with your friends
at an animated
movie about
guardian owls

21. You don’t
mind getting
geeky with
your friends
in the middle
of the rain
forest, by
acting like
leaf cutter
ants

22. You ain’t
afraid of
snakes at
all! And you
don’t hurt them

23. You care
for all sorts
of animals

24. But
particularly,
Raptors.
You Treat
Them

25. And
Release
Them

26. And have
helped
conserve
the most
majestic of
them

27. You’ve
cared for
hearty,
funny, baby
vultures

28. And difficult,
vulnerable
killdeer
chicks

29. You take
care of your
best friend

30. And she
takes care
of you

31. Cristo
Redentor
thinks
you’re a
great sister

32. And a
Great
Daughter

33. You make
me look
much
better than
I really am

34. You take
lots of cool
pictures of
me

35. Did I
mention you
make me
look good,
even when I
have
ridiculous
facial hair.

36. You keep
searching
for serenity

37. You keep
me
grounded

38. You were the best mother
a little girl could ever want

39. Let me
repeat: You
were the best
mother
a little girl
could ever
want

40. You’re the
mother of
our
wonderful
boy, Cord
Everlee

41. Without you
we wouldn’t
be a family,
the greatest of
the forty
reasons I love
you.