Welcome to the Jungle

Lil Bit likes to garden.

No. That's not true.

Lil Bit loves to garden.

Nope. Still not completely true.

Lil Bit LOVES to garden with a passion that shines brighter than the flowers she grows. Gardening is her therapy. Her way to escape. It always has been.

Momma loves to be outside with her hands in the dirt. According to my grandfather, Lil Bit's first word was "outside." As a young girl she had no desire to learn how to keep house, sew her own clothes or cook. It was all about being outside - gardening and fishing.

One of my first memories of my mother is her planting iris at our old house. Digging in the soil and coaxing life from it. If there was a flower she grew it, trees soared and vegetables and fruits ripened to perfection under her steady hand.

All my life I remember seeing her in the garden. Surrounded by beauty that she had brought forth.

Her current home is on a quarter of an acre. At one time it HAD a yard. No more. There is now a small patch of green surrounded by beds filled with Japanese maples, Lenten Roses, cannas, daffodils, roses, iris, hostas and on and on and on. Trees that she planted as saplings now soar to the heavens and provide shade from the intense Oklahoma heat.

Gardening is almost a competitive sport in our family and Lil Bit taught me well. Photos of plants are shared between aunts, my mom and I. Shared excitement and love as the first vestiges of spring begin to sprout.

Lil Bit no longer can remember the names of her favorite flowers. The lessons she taught me now flow back to her as I help and guide her with what to plant and where. Dementia has robbed her of the names and the technical details, but the act of planting a seed or a plant and then being able to sit back and revel in the beauty brings her peace.

The ravages of time on her body and mind are forgotten as the garden blooms around her.