Saturday, May 27th, 2006
Goddess, give me the strength of a wild rose,
to be free with my elegance in any place,
not to need perfect conditions,
simply to extend my fragrance to all who meet me,
without fear.
Give me the strength,
to remain vulnerably pink,
in a world of black, white and greys,
to be proudly budding,
even tightly holding,
and then in warmth,
to drop all my petals,
and become even richer than ever before.
Jennifer Luna Posada
I have a ritual every spring. I don’t force it. The best rituals come out of desire. I pick and string wild rose buds. They stick to my fingers and leave a heavenly smell that won’t wash away. They fill me with joy without room for anything else. The other things which might have snagged my thoughts for the day have to bow and take leave when I am picking rose buds.
Once I wo-manned a booth at an expo and brought with me an entire brown bag full and just sat there stringing them, this bounty in the folds of my skirt. People kept smelling the air, looking in all directions to find out where that amazing fragrance came from. Because it doesn’t quite come from a bottle. Just like the deepest essence of our beauty can not be recreated. It must be revealed authentically from within us.
Sometimes with think we must reserve it for only special occasions. The problem with that is that life is a special occasion, and even the most special parts are not something we should wait for, bottling up our beauty, but something we create by allowing it.
A few weeks ago I opened my car door by a wild rose bush, and, seeing the rose hips, had a moment of panic that perhaps the rose season had passed while I was so busy doing other things. I thought that I had lost track of those precious weeks when they bloomed and missed my chance because of it. I felt so sad, but only for a moment. Then I realized that I was looking at last year’s rose hips, and that the new roses hadn’t even begun to show themselves yet.
If you are looking at your life and seeing last year’s rose hips, just remember a few things. One is that the rose hip represents the rose’s most evolved state, rich with vitamins and minerals. Maybe brew yourself some rose hip tea. Then remember that the rose hips just signify part of a cycle and that the blossoms will always come again. No matter what part of the cycle you are in, celebrate it and know in your heart that you are preparing for a new spring and a new frangrance in your life. Await the buds with expectant hope. It is never too late.
