The Subject is Roses

i reunited with some childhood friends last week. every year at the same time we get together and celebrate our friendship. these are girls i've known more than half my life and they are some lovely ladies. it's bittersweet to see them. we take that trip down memory lane, tinkering with the past, it's joys, it's disappointments as well as it's triumphs. eventually we come around to where we stand currently in our lives. asking where did the time go ? and knowing full well that it goes in that blink of an eye. we tell ourselves how lucky we are to have survived and to still be a part of the story.

friendship is a funny thing. so much gained and so much lost in this department over the years. many blessings and tough lessons all round. i'm grateful for it all. it's taught me a lot about who i am and more importantly who i choose to be. surround yourself with good ones. the ones that you lift you higher than the sky. it took me a long time to make these choices and i still fall into the occasional traps now and again. only now i'm much better at recognizing the gems and leaving the nonsense behind.

nothing really prepares you for life when you're young. it's not until you've done some living that you are able to be more discerning and more thoughtful and more forgiving. it is not always easy to look at the trail you've left behind and what you could have done differently, one way or another. it is, however, easy to get caught in the undertow and the challenge is finding your way clear and then eventually a way through.

i'll be cutting roses for my july wedding in two weeks from a friend's garden. lucky to have her and her bed of roses.

summer here we go...

// xx

"self-absorption in all its forms kills empathy, let alone compassion. when we focus on ourselves, our world contracts and our problems and preoccupations loom large. but when we focus on others, our world expands. our own problems drift to the periphery of the mind and so seem smaller, and we increase our capacity for connection - or compassionate action." ~d. golman, Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

TED TALK {Compassion and the true meaning of empathy}



various rose images via pinterest