Rugged Rose

 

Rosa rugosa

Described as a beautiful nuisance this spicy-smelling beach rose thrives all along the shorelines where I live.  Blooms are white or pale pink, sometimes magenta with delicate centers loud and proud, stamens and pistils waving to the bees and butterflies that spread their pollen.  When the blooms drop in the fall, a large reddish orange, apple-shaped fruit is left behind.  I could harvest that fruit to brew nutritious and healing rose hip tea.  But I haven't. Called Rugged Rose it requires so little care it's been found 100 miles from the frigid and mostly barren Arctic Circle in Siberia.  That is one tough yet beautiful and simple wildflower just hanging out in the summer sun.  Sometimes I think of myself this way.  Rugged along the shoreline.  But sturdy, and proud, petals wide open and free.  Spicy!  Often useful and nourishing to others.  But sometimes not.  I can have a prickly stem.  Moving through this life, year after year reminding myself to trust in the rhythms of the sun and moon.