Wild Rose

Bright pink against a grey wall, the wild rose is resilient, offering its delicate beauty in unexpected places and bringing a message of hope.

I was travelling to an appointment and as the train approached the city station, it came to a halt.  We passengers shifted in our seats, sighed and then resigned ourselves to being neither here nor there but in a kind of limbo.  I looked out of the window at the grubby sidings with piles of broken stone, rusting metal and rubbish.

The carriage was stuffy and the atmosphere was a mixture of impatience and dull resignation.  Once or twice, the train creaked as if to move but it didn’t and the whole carriage seemed to silently groan.  We had arrived in no man’s land.

I stared out of the window at a grey wall with crumbling mortar, trying to read the torn notices and faded graffiti.  After a while, I noticed the delicate pink of a wild rose growing out of a gap in the wall.  The soft pink petals glowed and I was surprised not to have noticed the subtle radiance sooner. There, in the midst of a mundane world, the little rose shone with a quiet strength and an unassuming beauty.  Against all the odds, it bloomed calmly and persistently, brightening a dull corner of the world and providing calm.  It had an almost magical ability to transform the moment and I forgot about being late for my appointment.

I remembered that Wild Rose is one of the Bach Flower Remedies and thought that it had something to do with apathy.  When I got home I looked it up and read: 

“Wild Rose is for people who have accepted all that life throws at them and have given up the struggle for fulfillment.  In this state we resign ourselves to the way things are, to the extent where we don’t complain or seem particularly unhappy. Instead we shrug our shoulders – there’s no point trying to change things – and just drift along.  The remedy helps reawaken our interest in life. 

In a positive Wild Rose state we are happy-go-lucky.  Instead of apathy we feel a sense of purpose that brings increased happiness and enjoyment.”

Eventually, the train moved away and emptied onto the platform in a rush.  Back home, I took some time to sit quietly and recalled the image of the wild rose, radiating its calm amongst the dross.  I could clearly recall its subtle beauty lighting up a derelict corner.  Now it provided a focus for meditation and a reminder of how important it is, no matter what is going on around us, to find a quiet oasis, where we can be renewed.  When we cultivate our inner garden through our meditations, we always have a place to rest and to be revived.  If we feel ourselves to be in a no man’s land of any kind, we can connect to the delicate Wild Rose and allow ourselves to be gently drawn back to a sense of purpose and enjoyment in life.

“It’s not what you look at, it’s what you see that counts.”  Henry David Thoreau

Please visit Meditation and Rays of Peace ~ Global Meditation

©Louise Oliver

Connect on Facebook and Twitter