My earliest memories are beneath the jungle of zinnias and assorted flowers on my grandmother's farm in Nebraska, marveling at wee baby toads, having watched them mature out of pond in the mud to hopping across the country road.

As a child in the city, I wondered how the earth could breathe beneath the asphalt? Weren't there plants and insects trying to get air, water and sun and grow?

We wore dandelion crowns on the school playground and gathered sorrel seed pods and made pies in the yard at home.

John Muir and Ansel Adams were and still are my heroes.

The only one I knew who took photographs of pinecones, tree bark and rocks as a teen.

30 years ago, there were box turtles, frogs, and children that motivated me not to use chemicals that might harm them.

Recently, when the girl from Sweden dared us, I understood completely. (I will fly no more forever.)

In 2023 I read about the Oklahoma Yard by Yard Community Resiliency Project in my City of Tulsa water bill. The Department of Environmental Quality visited, and I qualified to be a part of the program, using no pesticides or herbicides. I'm in the Vensel Creek Watershed which runs to the Arkansas River, which I take seriously.

Now an Urban Prairie waystation / sanctuary for water, air, land, flora and fauna, I am rewilding, one year at a time.

It is challenging yet rewarding to know that I can do something to be a part of the solution for tomorrow.

Thank you for what you do for so many each day.

Mom in Tulsa, Oklahoma