Pruning The Rose Bush

First of all I would like to start by saying Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

When we bought this house right in front of the walkway to the door was a rose bush. It looked dreadful and I thought it was dead. We moved in during the middle of October. I figured we would just dig it up in the spring and replace it. For whatever reason, the rose bush suddenly sprung back to life. I didn't do anything to it. But one morning several weeks later it was in full bloom. Maybe it sensed new life in the house and wanted to be a part of that.

I had no idea how to take care of a rose bush, and so I continued to do nothing. By the end of the following summer it was 11 feet tall. My Mother who has the green thumb I wasn't born with, told me I had to cut it back all the way to the ground that Fall. That was pretty intimidating. While I believed her, I was still certain I had killed it.

The next spring new life rose up and it bloomed again. It's been cut back about once every two years and it always resurrects.

Spring is slowly trying to find it's way to Colorado and we had a nice day a few days ago so I went and cut it all down again. I am sure it will come back, but every time I do it I feel a sense of sadness and uncertainty. How can short, dead looking sticks ever have new life and bloom again?

I have been blogging for several years now. What I post about is rather random. At first glance my blog really has no theme. Sometimes I post about work, I tell a funny story, I write about things that bother or hurt me, and sometimes I write things that are strange and leave people wondering what on earth is wrong with me. Ultimately though, my blog has been a journey of self discovery. That has come as a surprise even to me.

Lately many of my posts dealt with trying to find myself, who I am now and whether there is something wrong with my life. But when I made last week's post about realizing my life is fine, that's it just life in general that has changed it was as if I had cut back the rose bush of my soul in order to allow new life to grow. I have found a new person under all the dead stalks that had been there.

I haven't written a lot since then because I was living life on this side of the screen. (And working on a commission.) It's kind of hard to explain in font what I have discovered and how I have changed...or perhaps changed back to the person I always was. I figured out I can live in this new world and I don't have to change with it. It's not necessary to conform in every way.

I feel as if the long winter has passed and the quirky girl has begun to grow back to her former glory. I have found more color and light and I am feeling content. I even feel lucky on this Irish holiday!

So may the luck of the Irish be with you, and may your roses always bloom!