I feel as though I find the same warmth and peace amongst the spaces within my house and my yard that a baby finds in the face of its mother. It is where I most want to be these days, in my house and amongst the nature that surrounds it. I find comfort within the physical space that holds much of my life, this place where my children grew, where meals were prepared, flowers and trees were planted and where I paint and  write. The walls of this house encapsulate the warmth of the memories and promise security in the days ahead; it is where much life is lived.

I have been blessed to see many different places in my life, many, sadly, are no longer there. I have seen Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin Texas where Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker played on summer nights when Austin was gearing up to set a new “stage”. I have seen NYC when it was big, dangerous and beyond the scope of my mind. I have visited the Uffizi Gallery in Florence without waiting in a line and into the Academie Gallery to see the David the same way. I have made a last minute decision to walk into Tiger Stadium, just by showing my student id, to watch Charles McClendon’s LSU Tigers play Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide. I have gone to the Emerald Coast and stayed in beach bungalows with windows open and breezes from the ocean rolling in . I have shopped with my grandparents at the French Market in New Orleans when fresh fruits and vegetables were loaded off of  boats that rolled down the Mississippi River and men from other lands unloaded wooden crates of melons and bananas. I have walked down Main Street in the evenings with my parents to “window shop” and I have sat through three consecutive showings of Viva Las Vegas at the Essanee Theater in 1964.One day, I feel certain, I will want to see more of the  beauties the world has to show me,  but now, in the middle of July in my 67^th year, I want to see home. Home, for me, is where the magic is.

 Outside of my backdoor,  the sounds of the Deep South in mid-summer are delightfully deafening, The noise is thunderous and the goings on are amazing…hens are clucking,  bees are buzzing, dragonflies are searching, birds are singing and  lizards are basking… I sometimes feel like I am inside of a Little Golden Book.

I have planted on this property for nearly thirty seven years. It was barren in 1985 except for the nearby woods; my mom referred to our yard as “the desert”. Now, it is home to so many small animals and insects. We have butterflies and caterpillars and dragonflies and all kinds of birds. And in the woods, there are racoons and opossums and snakes. At night, when the moon rises and the daytime noise ends, spiders weave their intricate, glorious webs and the chattering squirrels settle down. Then, the moon sets, the sun rises and  Nature wakes up once again. No matter what may be occurring in my life, she is outside of my door doing exactly what she does. She is always there for me to watch, to enjoy and to learn.

I write this to perhaps provoke enthusiasm in someone who is, as I, a big fan of Mother Nature and would like to help her out a bit. I promise, you will be rewarded. It’s been many many years of cultivating, planting, feeding and watering that has given me this joy I see today, this array of butterflies and honey bees and ladybugs and trees that bear fruit and flowers that give nectar and fragrance. Anyway, maybe my unpretentious message and simple words will be read by someone young ,as I once was, and they will begin a garden or plant a tree or feed the birds. In doing so, they will begin to create a journey that will bring them joy throughout their lives and provide them with a shelter from some of their trials. They will create a place that becomes their favorite place, a place that becomes their magic.

I am going to be a grandmother….I am going to soon learn of this new level of love.