The Beauty of Blooms and Torment of Thorns

Cristen Rodgers

What things in life have soft petals without also having a few sharp thorns?  This balance is what makes life so very sweet – the chance to appreciate the complex mixtures between soft and sharp, tenderness and tearing.

Too often we instinctively pull back after our fingers are pricked, and we learn to fear the way they bleed.  Without realizing it, we begin to focus so much of our energy on avoiding the thorns that we never notice that we’ve only managed to bury the rose.

All things in life have the beauty of blooms and the torment of thorns; we cannot avoid this truth but we can decide what to do with it.  We could bury away everything that causes us to bleed, never again having to worry about the sharpness of thorns – but what kind of life would that be?  To never feel the softness of velvet petals, to remain blind to the crimson color of love, and to miss the chance to drift away on the subtly sweet smells of summer?

Far better it would be, it seems, to risk getting pricked and have the benefit of witnessing the exquisite beauty of the rose’s unfolding.

©2016 Cristen Rodgers

Did you enjoy this post?  Subscribe to this blog and the next post will come to you. You may also want to consider supporting Cristen’s continued work by clicking on the donation link below.

coffee

 

20 Comments

  1. Beautiful Cristen. Thank you. In the immortal words of Joy in “Inside Out” “there is no joy without sadness”. So simple but so profound. How huge a life we have available when we embrace the divine in all things.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  4. Vivid and beautifully poignant. I can only think that it is often serendipitous that stunning roses do come with the thorns! Thank you for this poignant piece, and all the best to you!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  6. Reblogged this on alancetotheheart and commented:
    This post by Cristen is an excellent litmus for the health of our Lena and Judy. Check out the LJT page. When Lena and Judy are unhealthy, trapped in superstitious sky-God religion and live as if we are separated from the divine, status is evaluated based on circumstance. That was a mouthful. How about this… When we are trapped in religion that is based on separation we believe bad stuff happens to bad people because “God” hates bad people. We carry our sacrifices to the alter, like cavemen, to appease an angry God. Then everything is seen through that fallacy. Instead Trudy, our innermost self, our true self, is God’s manifestation on the earth. We are God, in a limited form, like in a dream trying to wake up. When we embrace this eternal truth we see the divine in the good and bad. In this reality, the divine reality, the need for good-bad assessments is non-reality. We don’t filter through the Judy fallen judgement paradigm. We are free to see “stuff happens” and we are in the middle of the stuff. Now our reaction to the stuff is our life lived not how the stuff is for or against us. So thorns are part of roses, big storms bring rainbows, sadness gives context to joy. We get to live a full life experiencing and consuming it all as one divine meal. This is what Cristen gives us in this post. I enjoy her insights as a gourmet meal that is more like desert for me. She is that good. Lance.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Embracing the thorns in life is much easier when your ideal of life, the story that you tell about what is important and real in the universe, includes conflict and competition not just compassion and caring. It is how you weave conflict and competition into your universe-story that tells you what benefits come from strife and struggle and how you should react to them. I love your take on that last bit.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Yes! I think it really helps to understand the oneness of the Source or God. Acknowldeging that opposites are only a matter of divided perspective helps us open our inner eyes to the beauty of soft and sharp alike. I really enjoy your comments and I hope to hear from you again! 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  10. Pingback: The Beauty of Blooms and Torment of Thorns | Spirits Awakening
  11. Pingback: The Beauty of Blooms and Torment of Thorns – Spirits Awakening

Leave a comment