“A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose. All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too.” – Miranda Kerr
I found myself lost in the simple, breathtaking beauty of a rose garden today while out walking on campus at lunch time today. For a long time, my life felt a little monochrome, a long winter of sorts where I struggled to find the simple, vibrant bursts of daily joy that used to sustain me. Walking among these blooms was a powerful reminder of what I’ve been missing. What struck me most wasn’t just the visual beauty and fragrance, but the profound diversity. In one bed, I found the whimsical charm of a ‘candy cane’ rose, streaked with pink and red. Just feet away was the perfect, classic symmetry of a uniform lavender bloom. Then, a vibrant, tight-spiraled orange rose that seemed to burn with internal fire, and finally, a deep, velvety red bloom with a golden heart, still holding tiny, perfect droplets of morning dew.
Looking at this collage of images, I’m reminded that we aren’t meant to be the same, and we aren’t meant to bloom all at once. The garden needs the early bloomers and the late. It needs the vibrant and the subtle. It needs the perfect form and the delightful oddity. Today, as I reflect on my return to this space, I am profoundly grateful for the diversity of the human experience, and for the simple reminder from a cluster of roses that every single expression of beauty is perfect in its own time.
