<p>Last weekend, I spent a whole afternoon among roses. I was back at Camp Joy Gardens, a 40-year old garden where I apprenticed a couple years ago. Every time I'm there, whether for one day or one year, Camp Joy always teaches me something new.</p>

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<p>This time, it was all about roses. More specifically, <em>antique</em> roses. Roses with delicious fragrances of citrus and spice. Roses with dizzying swirls of petals. Roses of fascinating hues - coppery orange, ruby red, apricot yellow, velvety crimson.</p>

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<p>We meandered through the garden paths stopping by each rose, sampling its fragrance and delighting in its beauty. Looking up at the towering roses, some of which reached well over 20 feet into the air, I thought about how old these roses are and their seasoned beauty - the kind of beauty that is only possible with age and must be created by time. </p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>“Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me  along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am  the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”</em></p><cite>- Jorge Luis Borges</cite></blockquote>
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<p>Most of us don't look forward to aging. We see it as slow decay and lost of youth, vitality, and stamina. We fill our days in busyness, hurrying from one moment to the next trying to squeeze it all in before we get too old. And then one day, we look back and wonder, where did all the time go? </p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>"Be sweet and slow, life, like the honey and the bees, and you'll taste all the flowers that they brush with their knees."</em></p><cite>- Ohara Hale</cite></blockquote>
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<p>When I think of all the perennial flowers and fruit trees at Camp Joy Gardens, which bear the most beautiful blooms and the tastiest of fruits, I appreciate their age even more. There is so much beauty in maturity and I look forward with excitement to the day when my garden and orchards will be 40 years old; and I will be 80 years old. Of course, I won't be bearing beautiful blooms nor tasty fruits, but just maybe, with enough luck and enough patience, I could achieve some of that seasoned beauty I see in these roses.</p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>"That must be what the great artists see and paint. That must be why the tired, aged faces in Rembrandt’s portraits give us such delight: they show us beauty not skin-deep but life-deep."</p><cite>- Ursula K. Le Guin</cite></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>“may my heart always be open to little<br>birds who are the secrets of living<br>whatever they sing is better than to know<br>and if men should not hear them men are old<br><br>may my mind stroll about hungry<br>and fearless and thirsty and supple<br>and even if it's sunday may i be wrong<br>for whenever men are right they are not young<br><br>and may myself do nothing usefully<br>and love yourself so more than truly<br>there's never been quite such a fool who could fail<br>pulling all the sky over him with one smile”     </p><cite>- E. E. Cummings</cite></blockquote>












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