I
can almost smell the intoxicating fragrance of these roses, so fresh
and rich with life are they. Velvet petals, lush verdant foliage. One
rose bush, yet each rose is bursting with colors that vary one from the
other--from buds, to full bloom. Rather like each living thing--all
change in appearance--not unlike the rose. Rose buds are babies,
compact, bound together in a small body. As they open, they spread
their petals out and lustrous colors unfurl, toward the life giving
sun. After their unveiling occurs, they curl and shrink and their once
velvety skin loses some of its vitality. The petals begin to surrender
to the sun and the elements, and their color fades. The perfume they
exuded in their youth is still there, in the heart of their bloom...You
just have to get a little closer to the flower to discover its
fragrance. Not much different, really, than the lives we experience
from birth, through life's different stages, until we fall from the
vine of existence in this world.
