A Thorny Thought

All our lives we hear: "Stop and smell the roses." As we age we naturally slow down albeit not always with graceful acceptance. It is very easy go to the negative side of being by focusing on the thorns of our lives rather than the roses. Perhaps, today, it is time to become the rose. Whether you are a bud that is tightly wound and less fragrant or if you are a full blown glorious rose sharing your glorious inner energy with all that you meet is not necessarily as much about age as maturity.

We all age. It is reality. It is inevitable. However, have we matured? Have we imbibed in the wonders of our lives so that we exude a heady bouquet that fills the senses of all those who come into our lives?

Have you ever heard someone say, in either a mocking or gentle manner, "Well, you just have to ignore Aunty, she is in her second childhood?" Many of us never had a first childhood much less a second childhood. Now is the time to embrace the wonder that is you. If you were not particularly nurtured as a child, you might feel a bit stunted in your growth. You could even be physically challenged because of poor nutrition from childhood. However, it is never to late to sip upon the sweet nectar of life with the reckless abandon of a child or the pure joy of child-like creativity. I observed this in my own mother, Miss Ruth. As she aged she became more sweet and, in fact, people would comment on how cute she was. At first this reference to an older woman as cute bothered me but as I experienced vicariously the aging process through my mother I realized that cute meant that she had a sweet essence about her. She was the essence of a delectable rose in full bloom and as her body grew weaker her spirt shined more brilliantly through her increasingly transparent skin.

As I ripen with age, it is my goal to become the rose not to observe the roses around me. This is not to say that one wants to ignore the outer world but as we age pruning and tending our inner garden is even more important. When you place a tough shell around you to protect your inner soul, with time, that shell will start to crack and fall away. It is important to work dilligently, no matter what our age, to become more and more filled with the wonder of life and become increasingly more transluscent so that our life light or soul may bring a sense of comfort and joy to self and to others.

I have decided that it is good to be a cute full-blooming rose.