Roses and Rest
“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in the winter. It’s quiet but the roots are down there riotous.”
—Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
art by Erika Pochybova
One of my yearly January tasks is to deeply prune the roses.
Cultivated to produce maximum blossoms and hailing from a colder climate than sunny So Cal where I live, come January, my garden roses don’t realize that it is winter and time to rest.
They require a severe pruning in order to get the message that it is time to send their energy down to the roots.
The first winter after I planted my roses, I was new to gardening, and I just couldn’t bear to cut them all the way back to bare sticks. Green-leaved with a few last blossoms, it felt cruel to interrupt their joyful growth.
So I let them carry on.
The consequence was spindly plants with few and feeble blooms come spring.
It turns out that being forced to rest from constant outward growth is the key to the beautiful, fragrant blossoms these garden roses are known for. Their abundant flowering is tied directly to the depth of their resting.
And isn’t that such an apt metaphor for us?
Our own outward productivity comes more easily and joyfully when we are well rested and deeply rooted.
The best and most sustainable growth begins in the dark.
As Rumi’s quote above reminds us, although there is little outer growth in the winter landscape, “the roots are riotous.”
Like my domesticated roses, we too have been so conditioned for outer productivity that we often miss the cues that winter offers us to slow down, draw inward, and rest deeply.
Often we may not choose to rest until we are forced to do so by over-exhaustion, illness, or burn out.
Yet, unlike my roses, we do have the power to choose rest. Rather than constant striving, we can choose to move our energy down and feed our own roots.
Even as the light is growing, winter continues to whisper her wisdom of darkness and rest. And the rhythms of nature are the rhythms of our own soft, animal bodies. We are what nature does.
How are your roots? Are you getting the rest you need this winter?
I know that it’s highly unlikely for any of us to be able to go totally dormant like a winter rosebush, but a little rest goes a long way.
What might want a little pruning in your own life so that come spring you are well-nourished and ready to bloom?
May your roots be riotous through your loving tending that you may grow wild, abundant and free when the warmth of the sun calls you back out into the light.
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Hello, dear one. I’m Stephanie.
As a Soul Companion, educator, and sacred space holder, I am passionate about deepening our connection to the earth, our bodies, and the divine mystery that dances in all that is.
Let’s journey together into the sacred wild!
