Roses and Thorns Grow Together

Life can be thorny and beautiful, at the same time. I know this from personal experience. I have learned that life is a series of problems to be solved -- one darn thing after another. Once you solve one problem, the next one is sure to be right around the corner.  There is no doubt about that!

Overcoming conflict makes for great stories. The greater the obstacles, the greater the triumph when they are overcome. Just think about Frodo, Harry Potter, Dora the Explorer …

Life is an adventure!

We are all writing our own stories, and life is fraught with peril and problems to be conquered. We have to decide which roads we will take, what choices to make, and we have to try and avoid Swiper the Fox!

Life is not always easy.

I cannot recall the last time I have had two days together, without some sort of trouble to be worked through. I doubt that there will be any two days together in the future that will ever go by perfectly smooth.

Living life problem-free? That is not how life works! 

This is a testing time. A challenge. A proving ground. We are not on vacation from troubles here, on this place we call Earth. We are here to see how we will handle the things that come our way. We are here to prove ourselves worthy to live with God again.

It is not supposed to be easy!

How can we become who we are meant to be, if we only trod an easy path?

It seems to me that if we can embrace the reality that life consists of challenges to overcome, problems to solve, and trials to endure, then maybe life will be more beautiful and enjoyable. It is better to realize and expect that you will face great trials and adversity -- rather than running around thinking you have been dealt a bad hand of life, and that life is unfair.

No one is exempt from problems, not one single person.

It may appear that some are free from troubles, but it is never, ever, true!

I think that sometimes people can feel like life is unfair, because they look at the lives of others, and life on the other side of the fence can appear so rosy and perfect. I think having the added capacity to look through the life-window of social media and blogs, can cause dissatisfaction with ones own life. (If you are comparing your life to others.)

The thing is, people tend to put up only the best of their lives. You are only getting part of the story. You are likely getting a very minuscule part of the story! A perfect snapshot is captured, of a perfect moment, and that is all you get to see. If I were to pull back from this lovely picture of a rose, you would see that there were dirty dishes in the sink, trash piled-up in the garbage, and me with messy hair wearing pink pajamas.

Perfect pictures are illusions.

People show you what they want you to see. Some people show you rose petals, and some people show you thorns. (And some show you both.)

For example, if you look over the last few days of my blogs you will not see the reality that we had to run to the Emergency Room late on Sunday night, because William had a pot fall on his head and split it wide open -- there was blood everywhere, including our new carpet. During that same moment Henry had learned how to take off his diaper, and his hands and crib were covered in poop. I was franticly trying to clean-up blood and poop, so we could run off to the Emergency room at 11:30 at night. (There was a holiday Monday, everyone was up late.) We took our wounded child, and poop-smelly baby to the ER, where I could not even remember the year William was born when they asked me his personal information. It was not a pleasant situation, to say the least. It was so crazy it was almost laughable.

I consider that kind of moment a "thorny" moment. A moment when things are not all peaches-and-cream. Some moments life can get a little prickly, and painful. Those prickly moments come and go, like sliding your fingers over the stem of a rose.

But such is the reality of life.

My life consists of problems to be solved -- from morning until night (and often in the middle of the night!). Sometimes those troubles are overwhelming. Sometimes I can get really, really, frustrated -- to the point of dizziness. (Like when I was trying to clean poop off Henry's hands, and blood off of William's head.)

But it is still a good life. It is my life. It is the only one I get!

And whether my story is fraught with pleasure or peril, it is up to me to decide how I will respond.

I think the trick is to enjoy the beauty of the rose, while being pricked by the thorns.

The trick is to enjoy life, because even when it is bad, it is good. 

Life is good.

Oh. So. Good.

Thanks be to God for letting me have my life!