What The Rose Knows

 

One year ago today I wrote about the lesson I learned from the beautiful peach rose at the end of our walkway. Today, the post, which I shared on my blog, showed up in my Facebook feed and I read my own words from exactly one year ago. Ironically, I had just come in from walking the dog, and it is a beautiful Fall day with afternoon chirping crickets…It’s like Deja Vu.

I hope you won’t mind, I edited the post down a bit, but I wanted to share the message, modified and magically new.I pulled from the original what was significant to me today.

If you have written for any length of time at all, you start to see some themes that continuously re-surface. I pray that the essence of the writing speaks to your heart…

I linked the original post at the end of this version if you want to see how and what I extracted.

 

I pass the wilted peach rose along the walkway which has offered up its beauty for the past few weeks. First it was a bud, then I watched the blossom pop with ripe full petals.

Every day I walk by the single bloom appreciating it’s message: the importance of  living life awake, not numb to the power of this present, fleeting moment.

The peach rose will be here, but for a short time.

Are we any different?

I think we are prone to growing numb to the precious tenderness of now.  I know I am. We forsake the rest we need to keep perspective. Recently, I was teaching a lesson with my Sunday School kids, about the Ten Commandments. We got to the Sabbath and my fellow teacher reminded us of the days when stores were closed for business on Sundays. These first and second graders could not fathom this reality.

Lately, I feel this aching.

The same aching I used to hear in the voices of my elders; sensed in their ways. The distance between the generations, the passing of time that chides, reminding me of my own temporal existence. The aching within that is what the rose knows and accepts without question.

The messages around us tell us to hurry up, do more, be more, consume more, push, take, grab, get.

I don’t want to be more. I just want to be.

The messages come at us from every angle, crowd us…crowd me.

These messages don’t tell us to pause, rest, reflect.

Instead the messages come through our news, news feeds and podcasts,  shouting loudly as each competes for our attention. Assaulting our senses from screens, speakers, billboards, and newsstands.

All these things I need to do, not do, fail to do, should never do, weigh me down.

My soul is exhausted as it longs for nourishment that can only come by the coming away.

So I do.

I walk the dog.

I smell the rose.

I ponder the moments, feed my soul.

I gather the stones, stare at the stars, laugh too loudly, and hug too tightly.

I let the lists go.

I block my ears to the drumbeat of the world telling me that doing it all is being my best...

I believe it is a lie.

I’d rather live like the Rose.

 

*You can see the original here: Give Your To-Do List the Boot and Wake Up to Your Life

Thank you for taking the time to read my #writingredeemed today.

This is my story…this is my song.

I am Writing Redeemed in October for 31 Days, 

See ALL the posts as they are published write HERE!