The Eighteen Roses of Life
Reaching the age of eighteen or what seems to be the legality age is one of the girls’ dreams. Being in a grand debut where you are the debutant, wearing a grand ball gown, being the star of the party surrounded by the people you love, to experience having eighteen treasures, eighteen candles and most especially… dancing with your eighteen roses.
Some girls want to celebrate their debuts like this but some are not a fan of these grand parties. We all have our own kind of tastes into how we like to celebrate our legality. The most important part here is… you’re happy and you got to do what you love. During our birthdays, nothing ever matters but our happiness and the people around us.
We celebrate our birthdays once in a year, we should at least make it special, right?
And just like being eighteen, we can also experience it once in a lifetime. Better make the best out of it. As for me, I just reached my legality age this 19th of July, year 2020. I feel really grateful and blessed for reaching this age. God guided me all throughout my journey, now that I have reached my eighteen years on Earth, it’s time that I reflect for all the past years that I spent here.
I am not a fan of grand parties and wearing ball gowns, I never dreamed of having a grand debut. I want to celebrate my 18th birthday by travelling but since we are still in a global pandemic where being quarantined is important, all of us should stay home for our safety.
Here's my birthday fact, ever since my little sister was born, I never experienced having a birthday celebration on my own. We always celebrate together, we even share the same cake with our names on it. Our birthdays are only a day apart so my parents always want to celebrate it on the same day. But today's different, I had my own birthday celebration, maybe this is the purpose of my quarantine birthday, God wants me to have my own birthday celebration, one that I didn’t get to experience for the previous years.
Looking back for the past years, life has been so tough for me. There were years of happiness and love but to get it balance, there were also years of sorrow and pain. Nonetheless, I am so grateful for this life. I get to experience a lot of things that made me who I am today.
Reflecting to the past years I spent in my life, I realized that without having a grand debut, I still received my eighteen roses. And the One who gave these roses to me was my First Love — God.
The Rose of Happiness.
The first rose He gave me was the rose of happiness. Being surrounded by the people I love makes me happy and to receive something I really like makes my heart leap for joy. In the past years, God gave me people in my life that will offer me genuine happiness I deserve. Happiness is fulfilling, it became my source of motivation.
God gives us challenges for two reasons; to make us stronger and for the sake of our happiness.
Challenges are painful but it is part of our human life. One cannot live without the suffering. But before giving us challenges, God will make us happy first. Just like in a book, the first chapters were happy, you thought everything is perfect and nothing will ever go wrong but when you will reach the middle of the story, the characters will experience challenges that are difficult to solve. But at the end, they will still receive their happiness.
Oftentimes, God gives me happiness before giving me pain and challenges that it makes me scared to be happy because I will receive sadness and pain in return. But, if being happy means receiving pain afterwards then I’ll gladly accept it rather than not experiencing happiness at all.
The Rose of Love.
Oh, it’s so good to be loved. I hope we always feel it every single day. In my previous blog entitled “The Greatest Love of All,” I blogged about my mom. God made me feel the true meaning of love through my mother. Even though He took her away from us, I can still feel her love, rooted deep within my heart.
Honestly, there are many points in my life where I feel unlovable and worthless. I will wake up for another day without nothing to look forward to. But, that’s the point. The fact that I wake up for another day already means I have something to look forward to. It is another day.
Whenever I think of giving up, I always remind myself that there is new music waiting for me to be listened to, a new movie for me to watch, a new series to anticipate, a new book to read and a new blog to write. There are still people I will meet in this world and I am looking forward to how they will have a big impact in my life.
During my unlovable state, God is always there to make me feel that I am still worthy of the word “love.” He always makes ways to make me feel lovable.
The Rose of Pain.
Life is not always sweet. To make the best recipe, it needs to have a little bit of spicy, salt and bitterness in it. Giving me a rose of pain reminds me that in this lifetime, I can’t always feel the happiness and love. I also need to accept the pain and feel the thorns. Just like this rose makes me feel. It has thorns unlike other roses. I need to bleed somehow in order to feel.
Pain is normal, no matter how big and light the situation is, if we feel pain, we will really feel pain. In my eighteen years of existence, it is impossible not to have experience being in pain. It’s so hard that I will just cry myself to sleep.
But, like any other, pain has a purpose, it helps us to grow. To keep going in life, we need to feel pain.
Whenever I am given this rose, I accept it willingly because I know God is with me. If His plans for me include pain, I know that it will going to be worth it.
The Rose of Sorrow.
Just like pain, I also need to feel the sadness. When my mom passed away, sadness was always present in my life but I have been able to overcome it by remaining strong. And, my mom surely doesn’t want to see me hurting and to spend my whole life being sad about her disappearance.
It’s okay to feel sad but let us not devote our entire lives from being sad. A day or two is okay, maybe even a week or a month. Cry until our eyes get weary but giving up in this thing called life will never be an option.
Embrace the sadness. Think of it as a cactus. Hug it until we bleed. When it’s too painful and we can’t bear it anymore… let it go. Let ourselves bleed, but I hope we also let ourselves be healed into something that makes us sad and in pain. Healing takes time but we’ll get there.
The Rose of Fear.
The uncertainty of my future scares me. I always wonder what will happen in my life five or ten years from now. Will I achieve my dreams? Will I be in a better situation? Will I be able to survive? Questions like these flood my mind and it makes me really anxious.
Fear will creep us and it’s okay to be frightened but do not let it consume us.
God offers me this rose with full of protection and gentleness. My future is uncertain, scary even but He is already there, guiding me. As long as I have Him, I have nothing to fear about. He is always there to guide me through the light if my path is getting dark.
The Rose of Courage.
In this life, I learned to face my fears with courage. It’s okay to be weak and break down but quitting won’t be of any help. Fight again. I believe that this life has still something good to offer.
God gave me this kind of rose as my weapon to fight my fears. This courage came from Him to use it against my uncertainties in life.
A lot of things will frighten us but let us always take the courage to keep going. Fighting fears with courage will make us strong in any given situation.
The Rose of Rest.
Many things, scenarios and situations make me tired and weary. I will be physically, emotionally and mentally tired that it will drain my whole being. This is the purpose of this rose. No matter how tired I am, God always reminds me not to forget to take a rest. It’s okay to rest on the things that drain me. I also need to recharge to fight again. To face the chaos. Rest is my armor in this tiring battle.
And, that is... by resting on His embrace.
The Rose of Strength.
When I am so close of giving up, I list down the things that make me strong. It helps me to get motivated in life. This rose gives me reasons to still fight. My strength comes from God, my family, loved ones, friends and also from myself.
They make my life worth living. They make my life worth fighting.
This rose also reminds me to be a source of strength to someone. People tend to give up easily, I know that feeling. By simply being with them, dragging them out from completely consuming sadness by not leaving their sides will make them feel that they are not alone.
When you show someone you care, it can be a reason for them to fight again. Let us be each other’s strength in this tiring life.
The Rose of Weakness.
A lot of things make me feel weak but I do not let it affect me for a long time. I remind myself that it’s okay to have a weakness, it doesn’t make me less of a human.
Feeling weak doesn’t mean you’re not strong. Feeling weak means you get drained too. Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable is a sign of strength that we are still fighting despite the things that let us down.
God gives me weakness to remind me that in this lifetime, I don’t always need to be strong. I also need to feel weak so I can seek my strength from Him and it will be renewed. This weakness of mine makes me show how fragile my heart is, it is not as hard as steel but this cannot be shattered easily because behind this fragile heart, I have a strong God. He is my source of strength to a lot of things that make me weak.
The Rose of Promise.
In this lifetime, I will get tired of waiting for something I am longing to have. And there, God will give me this rose of promise. To remind me that, whatever is happening in my life, I need to trust His promise that He will get me through this. Storms will pass, it can't rain forever and a new dawn will rise again.
Ever since I was still a kid, I promised myself not to abandon God no matter how dark our life gets. And then, He tested my faith by taking away my mom. Being true to my promise, never in my life did I abandon God. I never questioned His plan even though I can’t already understand His will. How can I abandon Someone Who is always there for me in times of sorrow?
When my faith is about to be shattered, I will be reminded by His promise that wherever this life will lead me, He will never leave me. And this... is His promise.
The Rose of Patience.
The purpose of this rose is to have patience as I wait for good things to come. Waiting may be long and hard but when it arrives, everything will be suddenly worth it.
There are a lot of things that don’t need to be rushed. Success is one of the examples. It’s easy to say, “I want to be successful,” but the process will be long and hard. The reason why we need this rose of patience is to wait for God’s perfect timing. We will surely get something we deserve at the end, the one that God thinks is the best for us.
The Rose of Regret.
Regret is realizing our own mistake. Feeling this is suffocating. Regrets can somehow make us unable to move forward. It will make us stuck in our pasts. But, this can also make us grow as a person.
Being a human who makes mistakes, it is normal to feel regrets in my life decisions and choices. A lesson is part of regret. Regrets will teach us not to be too impulsive and indecisive about something. Things should be taken wisely no matter how light and complicated the situation is.
I have regrets in life but instead of indulging myself too much on blaming myself, I will find ways to make the situation better. There is no use of blaming myself, it is already enough that I have realized my mistakes besides I can’t undo what I have already done. It’s more important that I reflect on my actions and improve myself.
Our choices today will affect our fate in the future, make sure that someday, you won’t regret what you chose today.
The Rose of Contentment.
When we almost lost everything in life, I learned the art of contentment. It was hard for me to adjust at first when we are far from the life we used to have. The surroundings, the environment, the atmosphere and the people, everything seems new to me. It was foreign. I am searching for the warmth I used to feel.
I needed to convince myself to stop seeking for something that is missing and start appreciating what is being offered on the table. Day by day, I learned to be contented. It’s okay to have something rather than nothing at all.
Contentment is hard to feel when we are finding something that is missing. If we let go of it, we’ll start to appreciate everything we have. This is what I learned in living in the province for two years. This is what life made me realize.
The Rose of Passion.
Every person was born with a passion. As we grow older, we will start having a dream. And that dream will start with our passion.
If you visit my blogsite regularly, you would notice my motto in my background picture. “Achieve your dreams with full of passion,” a success of a person always starts with their passion. If you are passionate enough with your dreams, you will achieve something. Find out your passion and it will lead you to something you desire that will eventually turn into a success.
Writing is my passion and I will keep on doing this, afterall, this is what makes me happy.
The Rose of Appreciation.
I am aware of the fact that not all people will appreciate me. They will notice my failures more than my victories. Focusing on them means wasting my time. Appreciation is hard to find in this world, when I am given by that, I treasure it. It is also hard to continue doing your passion when no one appreciates it. I have experienced it multiple times but it will never be my reason to give up.
I am grateful for the few individual who appreciate me. It’s a wonderful feeling, something that I never want to lose. Their appreciation makes me want to do more. It makes me want to improve myself more.
Everyone wants to feel appreciated and if you think no one appreciates you, I’m here. Your efforts matter and I am proud of you. Appreciation is the best rose you can give to someone today and I also want you to have that. Your existence is being appreciated.
The Rose of Imperfection.
Each of us is born with a unique personality and beauty. Nobody was born perfect. We all have our flaws with us. Only God can see how perfect we are. Feeling insecure will never be good for my mental health, reason I always try hard to avoid it. I learned to accept my flaws and embraced my imperfections. I started to love myself. Every God’s creation is a masterpiece, including you.
Instead of acknowledging myself as an imperfect human being with so much flaws, I learned to see myself as a unique person. God created all of us with different personalities, perspectives and features. Even so, He sees us equally. He loves us equally. Let us all be reminded of the fact that we are an imperfect person loved by a perfect God.
The Rose of Worth.
“Your value doesn’t decrease based on someone’s inability to see your worth.”
In this world, many people will make us feel worthless, but don’t let them have the ability to decrease your value as a person. God sees us as someone worthy of His love.
A person who doesn’t see our worth is not deserving for our love.
The Rose of Hope.
This is my most favorite rose and as what the famous quote says, “save the best for last.”
Hope is the most powerful thing there is. There comes a time where I felt like I almost lost everything. Our house was now empty, only memories of the past remained, my mom was slowly getting weak until her body gave up and she passed away. Our realty was temporarily closed because no one was going to manage and handle it.
But do you know what is the remaining thing I never lost? Hope.
Wherever I go, I carry this rose around me. As long as I am breathing, there is hope. As long as I am still existing, there is hope. I will keep on hoping until things get better.
These are the eighteen roses I have received in life; happiness, love, pain, sorrow, fear, courage, rest, strength, weakness, promise, patience, regret, contentment, passion, appreciation, imperfection, worth and hope.
While receiving my eighteen roses, God is dancing with me with love and care. In our dance, I may stumble and fall but He will be there to catch me. That, I don’t need to worry in this life because I have Him. There are roses that have thorns and it will bleed me. There are also roses that their fragrance will send me comfort.
The eighteen roses of life can help us grow. It will mold us into someone better. It will bring us challenges but it can also bring us hope. Despite these challenges, I am grateful for this life especially with God by my side.
I am sure you have also received these roses in your life. What is the favorite rose you have received and why?
Yours truly,
Clar ♡
My favorite roses are passion, hope, and you. ❤️
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