Saturday, January 28, 2017

In Which I Find a Secret Garden

This whole moving to a new city thing still gets to me at times.  I had loved & lived in my hometown for 29 years.  I had favorite spots that felt like they were completely mine - this rocky ledge I perched on with feet dangling over the Tennessee River, the public library, the park trails & paths I practically lived on in college & beyond {it helps when your school juts up against the back of an amazing park}...  And, all my people - my mom & sisters & nephews & church family, they all were what it was really all about.  Then, I left.  Packed up my bags & dug up my 29 year old roots & hoped they'd last the journey & find a new soily, homey spot to set into once I arrived in the land of my husband.

It has been hard.  It has been foreign - &, yes, I have gotten lost a time or two, & been homesick more than that.  It hasn't felt like mine, this new place.  It hasn't felt completely like home just yet.  What does all this have to do with a secret garden?  Well, let me just tell you...

The park I had actually intended to go to was flooded from the previous day's torrential downpour, & I almost headed home.  Almost.  Something instead made me turn to another nearby public garden.  I had been there once before, but the trail had seemed {though beautiful & well kept} super tiny.  This time I stopped & found a map.  It's extensive squiggly lines told of walkways I hadn't seen before, but where were these paths?  I set out with not much certainty of where to look, & eventually stumbled upon this...


Like a Narnia behind a closet or a wonderland down a rabbit's hole, I found an unexpected magical spot.  And oh how I needed this new favorite place in this city/state so unfamiliar!  {I'm waxing poetic here, aren't I?}  Anywho, this hidden haven chock full of various & sundry varieties of camellias has been a sweet gift, & I'm thanking my God, the Giver of all good things, for it!

P.S.: More secret garden pics here!

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