Lavender roses.
Incarnate fragrance,
Priestly hue of dawn,
Spirit unfolding.
Even on the road to hell, flowers can make you smile. They are fragile, ephemeral, uncompromising. No one can alter their nature. True, you can easily destroy them, but you will not gain anything; you cannot force them to submit to your will.
Flowers arouse in us an instinct to protect them, to appreciate them, and to shelter them. This world is too ugly, too violent. There should be something delicate to care about. To do so is to be lifted above the brute and to go toward the refined. When we offer flowers on our altar, we are offering a high gift. Money is too vulgar, food too pedestrian. Only flowers are unsullied. By offering them, we offer purity.
The tenderness of flowers arouses mercy, compassion, and understanding. If that beauty is delicate, so much the better. Life itself is fleeting. We should take the time to appreciate beauty in the midst of temporality.
My golden retriever loves to eat my roses. If I’m in the yard pruning them, he will follow me around just so I’ll toss him the flowers and he can eat them. I love my roses, as I love all my plants, and I’m grateful to Laura who taught me I could grow them organically so I would be able to fit them into my organic garden. I think I have a couple dozen rose bushes now.
Flowers are important to me, as are all sources of beauty. They are indeed a reprieve from trouble and worry, and tending them has grown to be a joy for me. I hope I will always have a garden to tend, and a golden retriever to eat my roses.
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