A Pink Morning Rose - Mum's Musing

I take my puppy out every morning for her constitutional. It was a warm morning today and the sun was just peeking around the corner of our house. I have a small rose garden in a raised bed we had built this spring in the front of our home. I was brave and planted a few roses. Brave because they are very emotional plants and like the "supermodels of beauty" they are, need a lot of attention and labor to maintain and keep happy. This year all of my roses were nearly devoured by beetles. It was a daily struggle to keep them alive. Supermodels are used to being attacked by hungry things but usually, it's aphids. Then September arrived and the weather was so warm--and just like that the roses rebounded as the beetles diminished, thinking "I guess fall has arrived." I was rewarded with a display of beauty like I have never grown in my life. I find women my age love roses. We saw our mothers dote on a bouquet on special occasions and dote over a rose bush all summer, so I guess in a way it is a hand-me-down mindset.

My rose garden is a wonderful metaphor for life. It is a short daily venue of observations. A slow, patient investment to finally see the splendor we will never make again. Everything stays the same and then it all changes in an instant. Every morning is a chance to start again. To see something amazing even in the unfolding of the petals of a rose. I am older, there are a lot of miles on the frame and in this old heart. So if you are asking, "does she really think like that?" Yes, my dears, I do.

I woke up this morning thinking about my friend Karen Brandau Smith in Florida. Her beautiful home was completely flooded in the terrible wake of hurricane Irma. Yet Karen still keeps her friends updated and as I write this now struggles with releasing all her worldly possessions into dumpsters to be carted away. Its agony to read about and to see her pictures on Facebook. Karen is a supermodel too, she stands up after the carnage and still shines a beautiful light on others and her situation even as the tears fall down her cheeks. How can we not model ourselves after such courage and fortitude? We can't. Ignore the nonsense you read on the Internet about all the reasons we should run for the hills. Persist in your beauty and belief that tomorrow the sun will shine and feed us all a better day. The beetles won't get them all and they will grow again next spring.

~ Hugs from Mum