Rose Party

There’s a fireworks celebration going on in our garden and it’s way past the 4^th of July. This one is only noticeable if you stop and look real, real close.  It’s in the center of a wild, vibrant colored rose that we named the Roanoke Rose, due to its discovery at the Elizabethan Gardens on Roanoke Island, North Carolina.  It now resides in our garden and lately there’s been a lot to celebrate, considering the battles it has endured.

This rose has a group of deer that love to eat it!  We actually think the deer version of Bon Appetit magazine must have published an article about this rose being a delectable, deer delicacy, with bright colored roses and thorn free stems, because it’s become the latest culinary rage in deer dining spots. Yum!  They love it.

Fortunately, hundreds of new savory selections are growing in the garden now and the deer have moved on to more trendy dining spots. And the rose has bloomed!  We were thrilled and it obviously was too, since a full blown fireworks celebration and dancing is going on in the center of each rose.  The celebration is so noisy the deer probably won’t ever come around again. And if they do, they'll just have to dance.

Celebrating does that.  It just kind of chases away all those things that eat at you.  It creates a force of joy that simple repels any little spoilers.  Celebrating changes the entire atmosphere. And it’s good for the soul!  Listen to how one of the wisest men in history reflected on the importance of celebrating:

“I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice (celebrate!), and to do good in their lives, and also that everyone should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor – it is the gift of God.”  King Solomon 

So, take a tip from a little rose that’s had its head bit off every day and a very wise king.  
Celebrate!  
There’s actually “nothing better” for you to do. And when you let a celebration begin in your heart, the music from your soul will change the very atmosphere that surrounds you.

Dancing with the deer,

The Velvet Lime Girls

Elizabethan Gardens - Original home of our rose.

 

Ballast Rocks

I have a collection of prized possessions in my garden … three ballast rocks from the Outer Banks.

A few years ago, my Dad would regularly dive down and haul these heavy rocks from the waters off Roanoke Island to use as borders in his garden.The rocks are protected today and only the “old-timers” seem to have any in their yards. I admired their beauty and recently my Dad gave me a small collection. According to Dad, ballast rocks were used to stabilize the early ships and counterbalance the stress and strain of wind on the sails, giving the ships stability and enabling them to sail without danger of capsizing. I’m told that these rocks, so essential for safe voyage, had to later be thrown off for safe passage into the new land. The throwing off of the ballast rocks created a lighter vessel that could safely navigate the shallow, rocky waters that encircled the new land and new opportunities. Had the ships held on to the things that had once provided security, they would have never been able to arrive at their destination safely.

Ballast rocks are a great reminder to let go of things…even things that may have brought security… and embrace change. Change that can bring about new opportunities and “new land”. Change that will never come without letting go of the old way of doing things and navigating into new thoughts and new visions.

“Forget the former things.. I will do a new thing.” Isaiah 43:18-19

Laura