Roses: Creating Special Places for Internal Growth

Where Roses Meet History

Portland, Oregon, boasts a notable rose garden that blooms for over 6 months each year.

The International Rose Test Garden is a spectacular place of beauty and grace. With areas overlooking the green forests of the Pacific Northwest, this magnificent garden emulates inspiration and grand simplicity with elegance.

This garden holds a special title; it’s the longest-running continually operating rose garden in the United States. With over 10,000 rose bushes and 650 varieties, it’s a floral city all its own. Portland’s mild, moist climate gives these roses their longevity, allowing them to bloom with what feels like patient reverence.

But this garden didn’t start just for beauty’s sake; actually, it began as an act of preservation. In 1915, Jesse A. Currey had the vision to create a safe haven for European-grown roses during World War I, fearing they might be destroyed in bombings.

England was the first to send their blooms, and soon roses from across the globe began arriving, carried here by the shared human urge to protect beauty.

The Rose as Teacher for internal growth

A rose doesn’t just look stunning; it teaches us about balance. The stems stand firm, yet the petals yield to the softest breeze. This duality, strength and softness, mirrors the middle path in active Zen living. It’s the art of holding a strong vision while tending it gently, with passion and care, while allowing the internal growth to expand organically.

The Sufi poet Rumi captures this beautifully.

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“Come out here where the roses have opened. Let the soul and world meet.”

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Like roses, our own dreams and creations need steady stems of consistency and roots of intention. They also need the gentle touch of joy, inspiration, and patience to unfurl in their own time.

Mind the Buds, Not the Thorns

The rose bush knows that thorns are part of its design, yet it still puts its energy into producing blooms. In life, we can choose to focus our awareness the same way. When we pour our attention into growth—tending to our “buds” with care and positivity—beauty follows.

If we fixate only on the thorns, we stay stuck in narrow thinking. But when we nurture the buds—our passions, projects, relationships—those buds inevitably open into flowers we couldn’t have imagined.

This is the quiet magic of the law of attraction: what we feed, grows.

Planting Your Inner Garden

We can each create our own internal rose garden, a personal sanctuary where inspiration and joy grow freely. Just as a gardener shapes the soil and waters the roots, we shape our days and thoughts to cultivate beauty within.

This flowering interior is where freedom and expansion live; where ideas, like roses, branch out in new directions, each blossom unique in form, color, and scent.

Our roses will bloom in their own way, on their schedule. Our job is simply to plant them, feed them, and trust the process.

Cheers!

Kether

Spunky Mind

"“I took a rose from a vase

and fastened it in her sash.

She sighed a sign of ineffable

satisfaction, as if her cup

of happiness were now full."

– Charlotte Brontë

🌹 Tend Your Inner Garden 🌹

Grab this reflection page to check in on what’s blooming in your world. A few minutes of jotting can spark fresh ideas and brighten your day.

Spark & Bloom – Download