I'm Sharla. Most folks up here north of Chattanooga just know my husband, Gene, and me as the couple with the wild garden who do pottery and know a little too much about herbal remedies. They call it folk medicine. I just call it listening to the dirt.

The woods have a memory, if you know how to listen. I’ve spent my life learning how to navigate them, understanding what thrives in the light and what prefers the shadows. It’s a quiet kind of magic, the kind you only learn with your hands deep in the earth. It’s also the same knowledge I use to help keep my boys down on Shale Mountain grounded.

Leo might be the sentry of that ridge, walking around with the weight of a wolf and an entire mountain on his shoulders, but even sentries need a mother. And Austin... that boy is the best thing that ever happened to him, even if he gets a little scattered from time to time. While Leo guards the tree line, Austin guards Leo’s humanity. Gene and I are their safe harbor, sitting up here just a phone call away when the storms over Georgia get a little too heavy.

Things are peaceful for them right now, and I pray it stays that way. The woods are quiet, but they are always paying attention.

If you need a little old-fashioned wisdom, or just a mother's ear, you can drop a line below. I'll write back just as soon as I'm done tending the garden.

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