Climbing Rose OR Thoughts About Life

Climbing Rose OR Thoughts About Life

Life is fragile.
Life is strong.
The trust we possess can be powerful.
Yet, our skepticism sometimes surfaces and competes with that trust.
Some say time flies while others say time stands still.
End of eras approach.
New beginnings are born.
Old habits die.
New ones form.
Life is comparable to many things.
Its like a steam engine speeding down the rails.
Will it’s steam ever run dry?
Will it make the climb up and over the crest?
Life is like the majestic balloon floating in the air.
Wind blown left.
Wind blown right.
Up.
Down.
Then it fades from sight.
Life is like a baby sleeping quietly in it’s crib.
Then it is awake, crying in the night.
Winston Groom wrote that “Life is like a bunch of chocolates.”
On the surface it is chocolate, but it is what’s inside where the mystery lies.
Life, to me, is like the climbing rose.
The path it takes is a sporadic one.
Yet, if the gardener directs that path, the plant follows the lead.
It follows the directed path for a time.
Then, before too much time passes, the rose’s path is sporadic once more.
The gardener grooms the plant. The plant that seems independent.
The gardener directs it in another direction.
This cycle goes on and on as the plant matures.
It’s path is sporadic then directed.
The rose depends on its grower.
The gardener lets it venture out, but always keeps a watchful eye.
Like our human lives the plant produces flowers.
It’s life’s accomplishments.
But before the flowers there are thorns.
The gardener looks past those thorns as he prunes.
Sometimes the thorns hurt the gardener and he bleeds.
He still loves the plant because he knows it will have a beautiful outcome.
Even after the flowers bloom, there are thorns.
But those thorns are overcome.
They are looked past.
The plant experiences hurt.
It experiences death.
It is watched over.
Sometimes we fear what is around the corner when we don’t know what IT is.
We are afraid to take that peak.
We are comfortable with the known and the familiar as we live our lives.
We have a sometimes hidden desire to want the unknown to remain that way.
Often that desire is hidden from ourselves.
We weren’t born knowing everything and sometimes we fear what we do not know.
We struggle with the uncovering of facts, of truths, of honesty, of love.
Like some, but unlike others, the climbing rose ventures out to the unknown.
It doesn’t know what is around the corner or what the future holds.
It slowly creeps along, finding it’s way and if it ventures out too far, or gets into trouble, the gardener directs it, helps it.
We seem apprehensive of the path less traveled.
It makes us feel uneasy.
But like Frost wrote, taking that path can make a difference.
If we have faith and trust in our gardener, we can confidently take the overgrown, crooked, dusty path.
We can look around the corner with self assurance.
And through life’s twists, turns and changes, our lives will bloom like the climbing rose.

W.Cortez
5/10/08
Revised 5/23/08