by Faith Draper

Created on: September 17, 2008

My most inspiring 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.

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