Pruned Yet Flourishing - The Rose of Love Is Here, Now

A short two weeks ago, this rose and its companion were only stubs, seeming sticks of nothing that nearly caused a divorce.

 I walked out one morning and gasped aloud to find Jerry had trimmed it to the ground.  I was devastated.  This climbing rose had been my messenger and miracle for some time.


It was planted here nearly twenty years ago yet for the past five summers there's always been a rose opening at a serendipitous time.  The first was in August 2007 the day of my mother's surgery.  My mother, not one to ever be sick or slow down, needed surgery.  As I pulled out of my driveway to go to the hospital I noticed one rose, one rose that I immediately saw as a sign of love from my father who had died the year prior.  He had requested red roses at his funeral.  Prior to this, I didn't even know he liked them.  I put the rose in a vase and took it to my mother as a symbol of his presence.

The following Mother's Day as I prepared to make the drive to visit my mother there were three red blossoms opened over night that I knew represented my two siblings and me.  The climbing rose has continued to inspire and share messages with me. 

Jerry had no idea how much the climbing rose had given me nor of my attachment to it.  When I finally shared my distress with him, he assured me the rose would return. Frankly this did not help nor did I believe him. 

In the days after, I considered how little tending we had given this rose.  We periodically buried chopped banana peels at its base and lately I had sprinkled the remains of water in my bottle, a few drops at most, if I was outside drinking.  Similar to my heart and Mother Earth, I've tended it so little yet it has given me so much.

You can imagine my elation last week when I walked up our drive and noticed the little stubs flourishing with leaves. I quickly got my camera and took the above photo. 

This week it happened again as I realized not only are there more leaves but there are multiple stems all around growing rapidly.

This flourishing rose is a testament to pruning.  Pruning reveals what is held within in the rose and in us.  I've spent such energy fretting over incidents, fearing and resisting pruning.     

The little stick that initially looked like nothing also reminds me of my body, pushed, driven and neglected that when imbued with Spirit's fire flourishes like the rose. 

As I continued to listen to and ponder my experience with the rose, it suddenly came to me that I had also felt the devastation of the many who've loved and love green and growing things be it the forests of oaks and ferns in my Perry County home clear cut for lumber and press board or tops of Appalachia's mountains blown up for coal. 

We despair because we love deeply.

Seeing the rose flourish gives me hope and renews my heart.  I am reminded there is an energy in Earth that all the clear cutting and dynamiting cannot destroy just as there is an energy in the heart of love that all the abuse in the world cannot kill or put out.

The rose of love may be cut to the ground but the rose of the loving heart that for centuries has known such sorrow and hurt is still alive. The eternally blossoming rose of love is blossoming all around.

It's here right now. Can you feel it?

-Dawn, The Good News Muse, 1 April 2012

dawn@imaginetheshift.com