The Wonder Of A Rose
by Laura Targett

“Look Mum, Look!” my youngest daughter calls,
her voice filled with compelling and irresistible excitement.
I take my hands out of the soapy dishwater and follow her out of the kitchen,
onto the verandah to a small rose bush in a pot.

“Look Mum, a rose! Look how beautiful it is!
You’ve got to smell it Mumma, it smells soooo good!”

It’s just a simple pink rose in an old pot,
but when I stop to notice it,
when I see it through my daughter’s bright eyes,
I see petals soft as silk unfolding gloriously
from the centre stamen of the rose,
I see a luxurious expression of beauty and delight.
I bend down and smell it, and it does smell so good,
a delicate lingering aroma that lights up my senses.
“Mmmmmm” I inhale blissfully, and the dishes, my work,
my to-do lists and forward planning of all kinds
dissipate for an eternal moment.

Every day my children invite me to share
in their experience of wonder.

Sometimes it’s a rose, sometimes it’s a feather,
sometimes it’s the moon hanging luminous in an evening sky,
or a cloud that looks like a dragon, or a caterpillar,
a discarded cicada shell, a tiny fish, a heart shaped rock…
but always, this sense of wonder that infuses life
with an iridescent glow of magic.

In this world, this human world,
it’s easy as adults to feel too overwhelmed,
too busy, too stressed, or even too depressed to stop
and notice the small magics of life.  

But what if a childlike sense of wonder
is exactly the medicine we need?
What if, when we get to the end of our lives,
we wish we’d stopped to notice and celebrate the roses,
all the roses, both literal and metaphorical, of our lives?

So when the human world, with all its worries
and dramas and tragedies and uncertainties
gets me down, I remember what the poet
William Blake wrote in 1802:
“To see the world in a grain of sand
Heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.”

And I take my child’s hand and accept
her invitation to be in this joyful state of wonder.
I let her lead me to whatever new miracle
she has found today.

So whether you have a child beside you,
or even the memory of the child you once were,
I wish you moments of wonder,
moments where time pauses,
moments where the ordinary becomes luminous,
where you remember to stop….
and smell the roses!

Much Love from UPLIFT
✨ ✨ 🤍 ✨ ✨