My neighbor let her dog use my lawn as a toilet every morning for six months and never cleaned up once — I stayed polite until she made one comment I couldn’t forget, and by the next morning I’d taught her a lesson without raising my voice once.

I have made up for with time.

Attention.

And love.

The hydrangeas line the back fence.

I started with three bushes and now have nine.

Two of them I propagated myself from cuttings, which took far more patience than I expected.

They bloom blue, white, and sometimes a dusty purple that I have spent years trying to reproduce.

Every July, when they are at their best, I stand there and think they may be the most beautiful thing I have ever created with my own hands.

The front lawn belongs