My Most Inspirational
Garden Experience (A True
Gardening Story)
By Faith Wright-Draper aka byfaithonly
My most inspirational garden experience happened
many years ago in a backyard garden in Texas. At
that time it was the largest garden I had ever
tended and I spend countless hours caring for the
many fruits, vegetables, and flowers. I never
tired though and loved my time in the garden.
One of my favorite times in the garden had and
still is early in the morning. While everyone
else in the house is still sleeping I will steel
myself away from the house and take up a shovel
or hoe or maybe just a pair of gardening gloves
to pull weeds. This time of the day is more than
just garden work – this is my quiet time.
It was one of those early morning gardening
sessions when my mind started wandering to my
grandparents who had passed away several years
before. Even as an adult with children of my own
I wished my grandparents were there to help me.
My grandparents knew everything in the world
about gardens, wild life, and nature.
It wasn’t that I had any particular question
I needed answered or problem I wanted fixed, I
just wanted to visit with them. I wanted time
with my grandparents and there in the garden I
felt close to them. That early morning I felt my
grandparents there with me in the garden. I could
feel Grandpa looking down at me with the warm
loving smile of approval that I had seen so many
times. I could hear Grandma saying, “Faith
you need to put your gloves on or you’ll get
blisters.”
About that same time, when I sensed my
grandparent’s presence the song “I Come
to the Garden Alone” came to mind. I started
singing it to myself quietly, “while the dew
is still on the roses”. We didn’t have
roses at that time but there was a light dusting
of dew on all the plants.
The song goes on, “and He walks with me and
He talks with me, and He tells me I am His
own”. I started to think was it my
grandparents that I felt there in the garden with
me or was it my Heavenly Father? The song
continued in my head, “and the joy we share
as we teary there none other has ever
known”.
Now, I must make something perfectly clear. At
that time in my life I was not what you would
call a ‘religious’ person. I
didn’t go to church, I didn’t say
prayers, and I didn’t read the bible. The
only reason I even knew that song was from one of
my short periods in life when I did go to church
but that had been 10 or more years before.
Why did that song come to my mind? Was it my
grandparents I felt in the garden with me or
someone else? I may never know but I know that
for those few fleeting minutes I felt peace and
joy just like I did when I was younger and would
spend time with my grandparents, setting on a
dock fishing, walking in the woods on the farm,
setting at a table playing solitaire while
Grandma and Grandpa busied themselves with other
things.
I still love spending time in the garden early in
the morning and each time I feel close to my
grandparents, God, and inspired for the day to
come.
| Faith Wright-Draper (aka
byfaithonly) has been writing for over 40
years as a journalist, ghostwriting, and
freelancing. She currently writes for
several blogs, freelances, and on her own
website www.byfaithonly.com
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