My Heaven on Earth
I was born and raised in Texas. I’m a country girl at heart with deep southern roots. My parents were both from Alabama, where everything is green and lush. I inherited my Big Mama’s green thumb, well or at least her love for plants. My childhood memories of time spent there still takes my breath away looking back at time spent at the farm.
Her yard was a hodgepodge of every kind of plant you can imagine growing in anything from a rusted coffee can to a discarded tea kettle or even a tire rim. Maybe that is why I love my little succulents nestled in an old tire rim. There was no grass to mow in that yard, only filled with a variety of flowers, lots of roses and containers of plants surrounding the trees.
Living so far away we only got to visit a few times a year, but I can sit here and see and smell the pine trees as we got closer and closer. I feel the anticipation of turning down the country road of red sand, driving past the ponds and making that last curve where I could see the house. I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough to reach the gate.
The gate that entered heaven on earth for me. The yard filled with flowers, aromas, bees and bugs that let my imagination run wild and free. Sticks became pencils and the sand filled yard became a giant palette to draw and write on. The woods of towering pine trees, thick vines and briars was a giant playground for us. A place to build houses and forts, make mud pies and take in all that nature had to offer. You could sit staring up into the sky above the top of the trees as far as you could see with the sun shining through the limbs with a beautiful glow cast on the ground through the shadows. Sun shining through stained glass reminds me of this.
To a child from West Texas that grew up with wide open spaces, barren pastures filled with mesquites and cactus this was like going to another world, my heaven on earth. The years pass and some memories fade but the feelings I hold in my heart are so strong. I will always love and respect nature and I try at every opportunity to share that with my grandchildren. Yes, I live in barren (at times) west Texas, but I have transformed my garden to replicate that passion I had as a child. My garden at Cornerstone will always be my oasis of heaven on earth and a work in progress with plantings and decorations. More importantly it will always be a place where God dwells for those who seek His peace. I can come here early in the quiet of the morning and feel His presence as I walk with Him and talk with Him. I love it when visitors comment how peaceful it is because I know where that peace comes from.
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden than anywhere else on earth. By Dorothy Gurney