Life’s a Bed of Roses

‘Life’s a bed of roses’… an old expression – first found in a Christopher Marlowe 1599 poem ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’. Great title!

Musings on life’s ‘bed of roses’… from an in-expert gardener…

…Roses are beautiful, coming in many colours and varieties; they’re delicate, sweet smelling and fragile…

Life’s beautiful. People are generous, kind and compassionate. There are many different varieties, colours, characters, personalities… as fragile as they are beautiful…

…Rose-beds need preparation. The rotted vegetation of the compost heap, the shovel-full of horse manure… and then the weeding…

Life’s rose-bed needs care-full preparation – teaching through word and example; less pleasant additions give richness and enable growth; weeding the undesirable that prevents the best…

…Dead-heading promotes growth. We enjoy today’s rose; as it starts to fade it should be cut off – to encourage other blooms to come…

Life’s beauty fades; yesterday’s roses are a good memory; by dead-heading we enjoy today’s beauty more and prepare for tomorrow’s.

…You live with thorns. Alongside the beautiful rose comes the potentially painful thorn. The two grow together.

Life is both beautiful and painful. Pain brought by sickness or bereavement, by the thoughtlessness or deliberate action of others. Joy and sorrow live and grow together.

…Hard pruning is essential. Rose bushes must be cut back. For next season’s  beauty old wood must be removed.

We move from one season to another in our lives. For beauty in the next season to be fully realised old habits, activities, roles have to be removed…

So I’m musing…

…learning to appreciate beautiful lives and the one who created them…

…the manure that is sometimes thrown over me – it’s not pleasant at the time but will aid my growth…

…to live in the God-given beauty of today…

…to accept the pain in my life and to appreciate better the pain in others…

…to be wise enough to read and distinguish between pruning and blooming seasons in my life…