I was heartbroken when I heard of the Uvalde shooting; I closed down the blog for a day; the only thing I could think of to do. I couldn’t write that day or sleep that night. I kept thinking of my daughter being butchered in that way and wondered if or how I could live through that.

Those poor, poor people.

I knew these nineteen innocent teachers and children had been slaughtered by a kid firing a combat assault weapon that he got just after he learned to drive.

I knew the gun lobby was too powerful to permit any absolute rational gun control and ban these weapons again. And I knew most of our elected leaders were too cowardly.

I knew the media would howl and “sympathize” for some days and then move on to the next scandal or crisis. That has happened.

I knew we won’t or couldn’t protect our children from this and that our country’s soul would be broken if we continued to allow this to happen. And we will; sadly, we all know we will.

Our political system is broken, the minority has a grip on the majority and is choking hard. It’s hard to accomplish anything.

The people protecting these weapons hate progress, love, or compassion in almost any form.  That seems to be their ethos.

They will fail, as people like that always do if you read much history. But in the meantime,  more of our children die these horrible deaths so that gun manufacturers can stay wealthy.

I really wanted to remember these children.

So I bought a small garden bed from my friend John Rieger at Country Power and a dying and straggly Nasturtium plant.

(My newest bouquet)

This would help me remember the children from Uvalde, Texas, and those others from a couple of hundred other places. I don’t have the space to list them all.  I’ve forgotten almost all of them.

We are sick. Some days I forget even the children from Ivalde, that is only human, but most days, I think of them still, even if only for a few seconds or minutes. The Memorial Garden has helped.

I’m happy to report that my Memorial Garden is booming, full of color and light. This is a good place for flowers; they are so glad here, watered, given sun and shade, and given loving care.

Today I cut some flowers to make a bouquet for a friend; she needs some color and light at the moment.

I’ll bring it to her in the morning. I took a photo of the bouquet in front of the Memorial Garden to show how far it had come and how beautiful and uplifting it is.

I don’t know where those children are, if their spirits live or not, but I like to think they will see, sense, or feel the garden in some small way and know they are remembered.

The children I know love flowers. I will take a minute or so to think of them; feel free to do the same if you wish. I can’t seem to try over it now, but if anyone else can, that would be a good thing.

Love. Hope. Care.

There are all kinds of ways to do good.