October 8, 2011

  • October Roses

    So it's been a month since the hurricane came through and cleared out the back garden big time. The straight line micro bursts stripped all the leaves from my roses... poor naked, green, thorny canes. Yet, those roses of mine are the harbingers of optimism. How so?  Those little darlings all have late season, beautiful ruby roses on them. Really strange seeing those canes waving, straight green and leafless with vibrant red jewels bobbing in the bright October sun. At least there is something back there now. Almost makes up for the wide expanse of lonely unadorned patio deck, no gazebo, no furniture, bye bye pool,  and so long all my container pots with their veggies. 

    Yet...

    Each morning as I gaze out my window to the row of rose topped green sticks, the dew sparkling on the petals, I have to smile. Isn't life just like that, the frosting on a cupcake, the froth on my coffee, roses in my garden. 

    This past month has been busy. Weekends spent volunteering to help friends, neighbors and complete strangers struggle to recover from the destruction of flooding (and re-flooding), hurricanes and tornadoes. Ninety percent of the homes in some of our communities have been completely destroyed or condemned. We have thousands of displaced persons and winter is knocking on the door... This is the northeast and we have had snow in October. Where are these people going to go?  The counties hit are some of the most economically depressed areas in our state. Unemployment is still 10% and that's the new improved numbers... it was 14%.

    Maybe, just maybe, they could send the trailers they are NOT using in New Orleans up north for these homeless persons. Maybe? Probably, not. After all, they told us last week that the money is gone. Gone? So sorry, so sad... next time have your disaster at the beginning of the fiscal year when there is still funds in the FEMA account.

    But then...

    I consider my roses; my poor naked incredibly beautiful rare October roses. They don't care that the frosts have begun. They simply nod in the wind and shine with the dew. And I smile. And I know that this too shall pass. It won't be easy, and it won't be soon. But it will pass. And October roses on naked canes remind me that life is precious and fragile and fleeting.

     

     

     

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