Since noticing the first indication of a flourishing rose bush in our garden, I kept taking photos almost every day. The above is a collection of one photo of each week from the first week of October 2025.
Growth has been incremental although faster, since the buds began to blossom.
The plant life too has a biography conditioned by the favourable soil and weather ambience.
Growth brings fullness !
Once the flowers have blossomed they remain fresh in the bush for about a week. Eight weeks of flowering process and one week of life of the flowers!
For anything substantial and cardinal, the gestational time is longer!
Investing for the final outcome is an existential pattern !
When the fish is caught, the trap is forgotten according to a Chinese proverb.
It is life that bears fruits of kindness, mindfulness, altruism. Only as much as life is nourished these fruits become a reality.
Do we invest in the life of our children for the sake of harvesting fruits from their life such as a good job, financial stability, prosperous life.and good prospects materially!
Or are we nourishing and nurturing life because we esteem and respect life irrespective of the outcome ahead!
Adolf Hitler had. despising attitude towards people who had cognitive deficits and developmental impairment that he favoured eliminating them as they were less productive or contributing to society and consumed the resources.
It was while watching the rose bush going through different stages of its growth, I was awakened to appreciate how much the plant life conveyed fullness even before the buds appeared. The foliage and the colourful appearance gave the rose bush an identity even before the buds and flowers of the latter weeks.
Every life has its abundance of mission even without bringing tangible benefits to others.
This led me to ponder on the mission of parenting! Is parenting presence in the life of children for the purpose of getting 'return of investment' from their lives or is parenting a gift of love and nurture arising out of spontaneous regard towards life that is being formed!
The break down of communication between older parents and children who have moved on to live their lives, arises on account of this perspective of investing in the lives of children hoping to gain from them later in life!
A rose bush is complete even without its flowers. The flowers bring an added dimension to its uniqueness. The flowers fade away but the rose bush lives on!
I wish this perspective would colour parent-child relationship. To treasure children as a gift and cherish and nurture them for who they can become! The vocation of parenting is self giving to 'love and honour children' for who they are to God and what they will become in God's purpose !
The parents of Jesus of Nazareth, Mary and Jospeh, 'lost' Jesus at the temple during the festival time, because Jesus was with the teachers of the law, listening and engaging them. He moved beyond the festivity of the occasion. When Mary came looking for Jesus after three days, the response of Jesus was 'did you not know that I ought to be in my father's house...'? (Luke 2: 41-52).
What a calling to release our children for the larger purpose they would choose for their lives!
Parenting is an act of giving ! When giving is joyful we add blessings to our children and fulfil our vocation as parents. 'God loves a cheerful giver' (2 Corinthians9:7).
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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