Thanksgiving roses…
The sky is grey. There is (at last) an autumnal chill in the air. Trees in the backyard have shed all their leaves and the lines of trunk and limb are more clearly defined in the waning light.
And I look out the windows and see a dozen delicate pink roses, in bud and full flower. What are you doing here, I want to say. The summer is long gone - the summer, when you were just one of the many flowers in bloom. Now you stand alone, flowering out of time. Has climate change confused you?
Perhaps I should be worried - these roses may be akin to the canary in the mine shaft.
Instead, though, I grab my clippers and go on a rescue mission, gathering the fragile blooms. Just in case there is a chilling frost - they will fare better in a vase in my living room, their scent intoxicating and teasing as I walk past.
There they sit as a reminder of life’s beauty, fragility and tenacity. What better remembrance at this Thanksgiving time!
May your holiday gatherings give rise to a full recounting of life’s free and complimentary blessings, even in the shadow of troubling, fearful or sorrowing times.