“Every flower must grow through dirt.” Laurie Jean Sennott
The gorgeous petals of the flower are delicate and transient, opening and dying with a burst of scent and color within a short period beauty that brightens the world. This brief brilliance is the visible culmination of a much longer period of struggle.
The bulb or seed must be buried, covered in the earth in a symbolic death. It must be watered and warmed, even if the seed cannot see the sun. It must be nurtured patiently after the winter, slowly gathering its strength and pushing beyond its shell, cracking open and sending forth shoots, delicate and green, that break the surface of the ground that covered it.
Slowly, inexorably, the young plant grows, reaching out and up towards the light.
It buds, changing form.
Petals start to form, hints of the radiance to come but still hidden in the green shell.
Then, almost overnight after all the work the flower blooms and the world is beautiful.
Without the dirt that nourished it or the rains that watered it, no flower could bloom. Remember and appreciate this struggle when the rose blooms.