We’ve dreamed the garden dream for so long,
six infinite-feeling years in a desert town
have finally ended, and dreams can root and grow.

Connection to the earth began for me decades ago,
a broken child seeking an anchoring tether
and finding it in the minuscule but richly complex
backyard world of plants, earth, bugs, and birds.

Healing began there, and finally finished in adult gardens,
at peace with my hands in the earth and sun on my back.
Now more than ever, as disease and warfare push
stress and strife in our faces, I long to make things grow.

I will pass on that love and knowledge to my children,
secure in the thought at the end of my days
that they can feed themselves and generations to come.

They will gather the future fruits of the labors we begin today,
and feel my love for them, growing and alive, all over again.

* Inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s quote: “This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden-so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.”