MY SECRET GARDEN

I have a wonderful magical Secret Garden. It grows un-tended and un-weeded in the deep recesses of my mind. My little garden has many rows of memories which have been planted there, four seasons a year over many years!, The first memory I have is one of me standing in my crib and my Mother pulling all the window shades down in the evening since blackouts must have been the order of the day during The War. I have memories of playing dolls on our big front porch on a rainy summer day. I can still smell the wet grass and flowers near the porch. I had a wonderful dollhouse made by my Industrial-Arts-teacher Dad. He handmade all the furniture including a little wooden "radio" with a wind-up music box inside.( I still have the remnants of that in my cedar chest. )

As I have grown up and older, the rows in my secret garden have sprouted with glorious flowers and many "weeds". After all, not all those memories are happy ones!

The best thing about my garden is that I can walk through it during quiet moments and pick a bloom and be carried back on it's petals to a time long ago when I got a pretty new dress, when a special boy smiled at me in the hall at school, when I giggled into the night with a friend during an overnight. I can see my babies' faces and feel their warm hugs, remember proms, best friends, my first kiss, summers on the Delaware River, trips to Beach Haven, NJ.  Once in a while I notice a weed and can look at those bad memories in a different light because right next to the weeds are the pretty flowers begging to be picked. Those weeds must have served a purpose if only to have me appreciate the flowers!

My memories are so special to me that it seems a shame that they will disappear when I do -  there aren't enough megabytes to keep them, and for whom? I hope that you take lots of time to visit your secret garden, weeds and all!