The Rose in the Garden

 

I was thinking the other day, a rarity I grant you, but I was thinking, sometimes plants and flowers remind me of people and a garden like society. And in amongst all those pretty plants and flowers, and they are in the majority, at least in my garden they are, there are weeds that need to be purged and they need to be  removed as quickly as possible else they take over the garden and smother the flowers. 

That's all pretty standard analogy.

That got me to thinking about roses. Roses are pretty flowers, some might say the prettiest, but then beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I can think of other flowers that might be prettier, but then it depends on the day and my mood and the sun and the rain.

But the thing about roses is. They are pretty. With pretty shapes, pretty petals and a beautiful scent. This beauty, it invites you in close, they encourage you and swamp your senses with delightful aromas. But if you reach out to touch them, their thorns will prick you. And sometimes, if you try to grasp them too tight, those thorns can break off. They can lodge in your fingers such that everything you touch from that point forward hurts and reminds you of the rose that you tried to hold too tightly.

Of course, when that happens, and the thorn is buried deep in your flesh, it should be extracted.

 Sometimes the extraction can be as painful as the thorn itself, but it makes sense to remove it. Otherwise it might shape your feelings, might even poison you and cause you greater harm. So those thorns that break off and hurt you, because you tried to hold a rose, they need to be removed, even though it might hurt. 

The pain left behind, that will soon disappear. And life in the garden will be good once again. 

That is, until the next rose that tempts you in. 

But then, having been pierced by the thorns once before, greater care might be forthcoming, before you next reach out to hold, that elusive and beautiful rose.

I definitely know some people like roses.