Tonight, I'm blogging from my room at the Court Square Inn (beautiful suites!) in Holly Springs, Mississippi, where I'm on assignment for one of the magazines I wrote for. Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I met with Suzanne Langley, who owns 45 or so acres just north of town. She's closely associated with the Audubon Society and has been working with her business partner, Carrie Ruscoe, to heal their land. Their focus and goal: replant and restore the native grasses that once historically inhabited their land.

Last month, they conducted a prescribed burn across the front portion of their acreage. Nearly two months later, Suzanne is thrilled to find many native grasses and wildflowers (like the one above) popping up across the property.

Why share here? Because whether you have 45 acres, 10,000 or ONE (like my husband and me), the payoff''s the same: There's just something so spiritually and emotionally gratifying to observe nature simply being nature. Suzanne walks across her pasture and thrills to find a native grass, like little bluestem, just miraculously appear. James and I stroll across our adjoining lot and find antelope horns, false garlic, and purple threeawn grass flourishing. Suzanne's amazed. We're are, too.

How does nature do that?

Bottom line: Suzanne, Carrie, James and I welcome and encourage native plants. Because once native plants return and establish themselves in our landscapes, then nature responds. Birds come. Lizards appear. Butterflies visit. Bees drop by.

It's a ripple effect.

Because neighbors also pause. They see. They stop by. They get out of their car and ask: What kinds of birds are we trying to attract? What's the name of that flower? What do you call that grass?

"Ah, yes," we say. " We're so very, very glad you asked...."