Have you ever visited the San Diego Rose Garden in Balboa Park?

Next to the ocean, the Rose Garden is truly one of my temples. I go there alone or on a date to be among the lovely smell of roses. I love them and even have a rose tattoo on my shoulder.

Wildflower Child

I never sought out roses. As a child, I loved wildflowers. I spent my summers in Pennsylvania at my grandmother’s house. There, I played in the field of dandelions and chased fireflies. I never paid much attention to roses. In high school and college, I asked my boyfriends to pick wildflowers, put them in old spaghetti jars, and give them to me for Valentine’s Day. I viewed roses as gifts for refined women and equated myself to wildflowers.

I was that country girl running wild in the field that couldn’t be tamed. How could I compare myself to a rose? I remember conversing with my mother, who told me how much I had matured. She told me to recognize that I was refined like a rose on the outside.   We laughed, and I agreed, but I added to her depiction of me by saying that I had the spirit of a wildflower. That conversation has stuck with me for years, and it has become my tagline for my Blooms and Alchemy products, The Elegance of A Rose with the Spirit of a Wildflower. 

The Rose Garden is where I go when I want to think, take photos, write poetry, or just be silent. When I feel hopeless and lost, I look at the flowers around me and am reminded that the divine does exist. There is something about colorful, silky petals that enliven the spirit. Roses are my favorite flowers, but I still have a wildflower spirit!