Lessons from a Climbing Rose

Yesterday I went into my garden to do some much needed cleaning and clearing. One of the first projects I turned my attention to was pruning my climbing roses. With all of the sunshine and rain we have had here in Georgia in the past few weeks, the roses had grown out of control. Some shoots had come out near the roots and were growing in all directions. For as much as I love the look of fresh new growth bursting out, the garden designer in me knew that this growth did not actually help support the plant or the flowers. I had been taught by a no nonsense British garden expert, that climbing roses produce the best flowers from shoots that come off of 3 or 4 main “canes”, or stems. She explained that the rose would put its energy, and lymph, into these few sturdy canes that would then produce an abundance of beautiful healthy roses. What I was facing with my neglected climbers was a snarled mass of young shoots, many of which were bending and breaking under the weight of the roses which they tried valiantly to carry. Their energy, spread in too many directions, was not enough to support the new roses.

While working through this thorny process, I was reminded of conversations I have had with some of the women in my life who tell me of their busy lives and how they feel pulled in all directions. They may have so many obligations and projects on their plates that they don’t have sufficient energy to fully complete one task. They shoot out in all directions but don’t have the strength to support the roses they produce.

The current pandemic has brought all kinds of uncertainty, pain and loss for many but for those who have used this moment as a time to slow down and reflect, it has also brought some clarity. I am hearing from many women that they have used this time to reconsider their commitments; they have pruned back those activities which they felt were energy drainers rather than energy builders. We often get caught up in the frenetic pace of life and commit to jobs, projects or activities because we feel that they are expected of us or because we simply have a hard time saying “n. If we can take a moment and learn to look at those activities more objectively, we can better consider how they fit in with our values and purpose, our “canes”. Do they bring energy to what really matters to us? Or are they shooting out in all directions without the energy to support a single rose? Are they rooted in our vision of how we want our life to be going forward? Or are they going every which way trying to find a path that might lead to some unknown end?

For those who are experiencing a moment of forced isolation, this time can be used to concentrate our energies and reinforce the areas of our lives that bring us purpose and meaning so that we may produce more beautiful and healthy flowers, and to prune the shoots which sap the energy we need to reach our life goals.