It was definitely love at first sight;

In the first moment that I saw her, Rosa ‘Francois Juranville’ sent a rose-thorned arrow through my heart, capturing both it and my imagination, completely. Eight years of careful observation and appreciative encounters have done nothing to diminish that. Such a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

As in most affairs of the heart, crushes can seem quite awesome at first blush, but true love takes time. One may need, after all, to see the object of one’s affection at a quarter past midnight in order to begin to truly understand its deeper nature… Doesn’t this botanic creature look marvelous within the cool/warm mix of porch light and moonlight? (Be sure to click on the image to see it larger.)

One may need to see one’s crush caged by life’s circumstances, before knowing whether it is merely a fair-weather rose, or a generous magician and true font of beauty.

When life’s inevitable rain squalls descend, no rose so finely featured could ever hope to disguise its true stamina and character. This one doesn’t need to.

Some roses, like some people are fussy and demanding, and never quite seem up to the stresses and struggles of the day at hand. One may think it is love in that first moment of meeting, but time will prove just how different that initial appearance may be from the true character of a thing, which cannot help but reveal itself over time.

Think about the roses in your own garden and the people in your life. Some of them, a few perhaps will prove themselves magical, again and again. They will continue to enlarge your view of them even as you see them in stormy days and weighed down with bouts of sickness and hardship. Crushes will inevitably fade, but true love grows when both give generously and prove themselves worthy of one another’s best affections. For me this is yet another lesson I’ve gleaned and that life has refined for me from time intentionally spent in the garden. Namasté.