Don't Give Up

I've been a witness to the most amazing experience. It might seem ordinary to anyone else, but to me, it's amazing. It all started with three 50+ year-old rose bushes, plus a four or five others. They've lived nearly their entire life at the front of the house, planted years ago by my grandparents. The family was quite sentimental about them. Their moment of great adversity arrived, requiring them to be moved from the front of the house to another location in the yard. There was great anxiety over the transplant since they were old plants and transplanting in general is stressful for a plant. I watched them as they continued on through the fall, and still appeared to be alive, and winter came in. At some point over the winter, the leaves died, and as Spring came, it was time to cut down the dead branches. They looked dead, and we all mourned at the thought of losing those roses.

One month later, one of the bushes began to develop leaves. I was so excited. I looked at the other bushes that still refused to show any signs of life. The rest of the family were already declaring them dead, but I kept telling them that we need to wait before giving up. A few weeks went on. Low and behold, another one was developing leaves! Yay! The last one was the most concerning, since it was in the shade a little more than the others, but I still refused to declare it dead. It was a long wait, even a month or so later, but one day as I was making my rounds examining the bush, guess what? There was a sprout growing leaves! What was interesting about the growth on these rose bushes was that even though the plant above ground appeared dead, there were clearly some strong roots that survived and were strong enough to create new shoots for the bushes. It might take some time for them to grow to be as strong and large as the original plants, but they live! We were even able to get a red rose to bloom before it started getting too hot!

Ok. I admit it. I'm a sucker for these types of stories, even if it only happened to roses. The truth is that there are people living this story. They've gone as low as they can go in life, and yet still manage to find the strength to pull through, even if it took a long time to come back. Those are my most favorite stories told. I love to see the juxtaposition between the dark abysmal depths and lighthearted peaceful moments of joy. We are all capable of living this story, because you know we all have at least one moment (if not more) when we have a chance to regrow from our mistakes, be it major or minor, or to rise from a dark time in our lives caused by any given number of factors. It is possible, even to your last source of strength and courage.

One of the new sprouts on an old rose bush.