Healing Garden

 Gardens settle my heart. When I was forced to move, my wise friend and sister told me,

“Laurie you need a place to dig in the dirt.”

 And so began my therapy.

It was a hard deadline.

  Two barns, a garage,  a basement, fifteen rooms,

forty-plus years of life had to be vacated . 

Remnants of eight grandparents, four business offices,  a burned-down National Stock Yards mingled with three daughters’ possessions, one collector’s whims, a survivalist’s hoarding

PLUS the accumulation of one tiny sentimental Mama.

Everything had to be shoveled out.

When you move, you must touch every single thing. 

After my 40-year love betrayed and abandoned me, 

touching every memory was excruciating.  

I had to pack.  I had to leave.  There was no spouse to help.

I climbed into my sweatpants and worked.

I was leaving behind gardens heaped with flowers. Each had been lovingly planted. 

There were walkways and bricks laid on pregnant days. 

There were stone walls built with a toddler in tow.

  My heart had lost love.  Now it was losing place.  

God….I needed hope and encouragement. 

I packed boxes, moved furniture and hauled refuse.  I burned old files and packaged keepsakes.

I swept up hidden mouse nests and clinging cobwebs. 

After one long day, I gazed at my back yard.  The new homeowners had said I could take plantings and some stone and brick.

   I simply could not leave these pieces of myself behind. 

Shovel in hand, off I went.

 I loaded up a half-track cart with pathway bricks. I moved limestone borders and bucketed iris.

  I captured lilies and bagged seeds.   Bricks were stacked in my trunk.

  Buckets and rock piles lined my driveway. 

I had a problem, however.  I was moving to a rental home. 

Where would I go with all these treasures?

 Enter: compassion.

When my new landlord found out I was interested in gardening, he invited me to dig up my rental back yard.  He even said I could start digging before my lease started. 

So – my Healing Garden began . 

Stones and brick – bulbs and seeds – rakes and shovels were hauled to a new location.  

One crisp fall day I dug and dumped dirt, bordering my garden with stone and a tiny brick walkway.   

The project calmed my confused mind.  Dirt lodged on my weary hands.

I was surrounded with mud, but I felt clean, fresh hope.

It was so much simpler to place stones and move dirt

than to figure out lost love and broken hearts. 

I attacked my garden project with gusto. 

Here was something I could create.  

It was important to create something when

life as I knew it was being torn down.

God and I created my humble garden. 

Today… I look at my garden in amazement.  The garden has gone through four additions, including a bricked patio with seating for the perfect Teddy Bear Tea party. (All interested toddlers invited. )

My garden is always a surprise – God changes it’s character with the whim of the seed drop and rainfall.  I am never disappointed. 

I truly do not care what grows  in my garden, as long as bees approve and I can see the beauty.  

I appreciate every single flower which pops up.

Recently, Colorado sunflowers surprised me after I had been away a month.  They’d grown taller than me.   Right now they nod cheerfully and remind me of my daughter.  

Garden healing continues.

  Like in the song….I come to the garden alone…

…and I find peace.

🎶 I come to the garden alone

While the dew is still on roses

And the voice I hear falling on my ear

The son of God discloses

And he walks with me and he talks with me

And he tells me I am his own

And the joy we share as we tarry there

None other has ever known

🎶 🎶 🎶

God promised His people gardens in Isaiah 51:3. 

God’s people had been conquered. They were devastated…kinda like me…but God made some promises. 

I love the message of hope…and gardens…found in Isaiah 51:3

❤️

The Lord will surely comfort Zion

    and will look with compassion on all her ruins;

He will make her deserts like Eden,

    her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness will be found in her,

    thanksgiving and the sound of singing.

– Isaiah 51:3

Thanks, God, for my garden healing.