Wonder is worth the journey...

As a little girl, my mother would put me in the car and we’d drive south through desert and dust to visit my great-grandmother in Casa Grande, a small town between Phoenix and Tucson. Passing houses and vacant lots, I’d look out the window waiting to see the giant flowers. 

My great grandmother loved to garden. My earliest memories are of chasing cats under hollyhocks and sunflowers. There was a timelessness there. 

Vinnie Lou was from Georgia. My mother was from Texas. The song in their voices filled the garden with music. 

“Look at those hollyhocks,” my mother said.

“Mmm, hmm,” Vinnie Lou said.

“The sunflowers have grown taller,” my mother said.

Their love of flowers covered me with blessings. 

Sometimes my mother and Vinnie Lou were quiet, a shared quiet, both in wonder.

It’s no wonder my mother drove to Vinnie Lou’s garden often. To be in wonder is worth the journey.

Leaving, Vinnie Lou would say to me, “You have grown taller.”

What I realize now is that for decades I’ve been growing my way back to her garden.

There was a balm there, in the flowers, in their voices, in the love. A timeless place of beauty. 

We all have these places of wonder and joy. We can make then, discover them, remember them, return to them, savor them. It’s a journey to find the childlike joy inside of us. To let laughter bubble up. And to sing a song of joy and thanksgiving when we’re there. Joy does that, it bursts out naturally. 

“Look!”

It’s important to sing these songs again and again because the songs become breadcrumbs, leading us to joy.

The song sings an eternal song. Rest here. Recover here. Renew here. Rejoice here.

Sit on the porch. Chase a cat. Look up. The hollyhocks are blooming. 

May Peace be with you.

~Kathleen

To watch MissyAnn & Butter’s song “Under the Hollyhocks” on YouTube click here.

To watch MissyAnn & Butter’s song “Under the Hollyhocks” on YouTube click here.