Summer was our favorite time of year and predawn hours our special time of day. We would scramble out of bed while it was still pitch black outside, grab our helmets and a thermos full of java, hop on the bike and ride out to meet sunrise on the beach.

We'd be alone there, except for one or two anglers at a distance, treading our way in ankle-deep sand toward the rolling waves lapping at the last bit of night still clinging to the coastline.

We would spread an old shower curtain a stone's throw away from water's edge. There we'd sit on sea foam and dew dampened sand. A shape shifting sky briskly bluing brighter would find us hand-in-hand, arms entwined and sipping coffee.

Our eyes soft-focused where the sea caressed a glowing patch of clouds in anticipation of the first splash of light. We'd be sporadically sprayed by an unruly tide now and then crashing with a loud swoosh and a quick hissing sound. Leaning upon each other, still half asleep, we'd wait to be fully awakened by the dawn.

A soft blush of pink would be witnessed by us to intensify and redden the turquoise horizon and, suddenly, in a blaze of shimmering colors, Gaia would let the genie of light out of the bottle of the night, to make our morning dreams come true.

Remember when, as a little kid, clear, sunny days would last forever and you'd feel safe and warm and happy, busy having fun from dusk 'til dawn? It was like that only better.

With sunup showering a brand new day upon us we'd swiftly shake off a spell of sleepy silence, crow like roosters and mock-wrestle, shoulder to shoulder. The raw wind mussing our hair with salty sand together, we'd laugh until coffee would come out of our nose, forgetting all sense of self. Played with by the elements, down by the sea, we'd giggle and jostle blissfully free.

Sometimes we'd do a spontaneous sunrise ritual a moment before expecting daybreak to emerge from the ocean waves. Thinking of something much desired and without telling each other what it was, we'd ask that the secret wish be granted. We'd hold the feeling of fulfillment in lungs filled with air, hold it... hold it... and then, with a great big baaaaaaahhhh sound, release it across the dunes synchronized with the first piercing point of light.

Impishly looking at each other, we'd hoot and cackle with the next few breaths, and screech and flap our arms like wings of great big sea eagles, kicking sand beneath our sneakers, so glad to be alive.

It is late spring now and with our favorite season approaching fast, I remember those magical summer mornings past. Quite a pair we were, you and I. What single stroke of luck or blueprint of lives before we knew not of would have us meet in this one? Had we always been a couple?

What pleasure it was to paint happy memories with colors of delight, leaving grooves of unfading love in tracks of space and time. There, on the beach, our hearts aflame with the speed of light, we had broadcast rays of joy to be echoed back by the collective human soul.

As the first golden sunbeams rushed to kiss the ground beneath our feet--together, we were more than just the sum of us, nothing felt impossible and we'd live in that enchanted moment forever.