For my Mom...

One of my most favorite places to go (besides Disneyland) is the local nursery. No secret as to why: as a child I took many trips there with my mother. Imbedded in my memory is the filtered sunshine through shading nets, the stacks of clay pots and saucers, the smell of soil and fertilizer (yes I love the smell), the rows of seedlings, six-packs of flowers...

What I'm drawn to the most, and I what I remember as a child, is the peaceful calm that I feel when I'm there. Being outside in the sunshine, the distant tinkling of a wind chime, the sound of trickling water fountains...all the hues of green and the many flowers, the rows of young trees and the stepping stones on graveled pathways. I visit the nursery often just to BE there.

Because of my love for nurseries, I often take my daughter to the one down the street from us. She makes a dash to the stone statues of tiny animals--the bunnies, the turtles, the frogs. Then she makes her way over to each of the many water fountains and dips her fingers, in every one. She grabs a little wagon and pulls it around, loading it with her own flowers. (And flowers she'd like to buy for me and for Grammy, her teacher, etc.)

Today when I came home from a new nursery that I had visited I took her to my lap and told her about it. How I had met the nursery kitty, "Miss Kitty", a fat, grey, sweet and mellow kitty who liked to have her ears "scritched". How we needed to go there and visit her! And that there was a large bird cage of sweet doves, grey and white, that lived in the middle of the nursery. One of the grey doves was nesting on an egg and a couple of the others flew over to meet me and "chatted" with me as I attempted to take their pictures through the fencing.  I told Michaela that we would go there soon. By the smile on her face I knew that she was imagining what it will be like to go there, pull her wagon around and meet "Miss Kitty", see the birds, visit each fountain.  

I smile knowing that I am giving to her what my mom so unknowingly gave to me...cherished memories and a continuing place to go and find a simple quite peace and calm...and be.

Happy Birthday Mom. I love you...