Consider The Rose

The question "What do women want" is age-old. My answer is: consider the rose.  What women want is different for each one, naturally. Roses need sunshine and fresh air and thoughtful cultivation. They are lovely but they have thorns and therefore, need to be gathered carefully. To keep them continuously beautiful, they need tending and an understanding of their kind. There are countless roses: some elegant tea roses, some floribunda, some wild, some voluminous, some highly scented and others miniature. All are beautiful and thrive and multiply. Roses being cousins of apple trees, will bear fruit from which one can make unique savories. The rose, for all of its variety, is something to be considered with depth. It is easy to grow but complex in its mystery. It's  petals are convoluted and inter folding. It has a secret heart. When the rose grows, first it is a bud and it slowly unfolds into life sending its generous scent afar to attract what will partake of it and further its kind to flourish but roses love to chat in groups. To walk amongst them in a rose garden is to take time to allow the senses to expand and exercise. You see, touch, and smell. You rather feel a rose inside you to truly appreciate it. When you decide finally on the one special rose that is your favorite, you take it home and place it somewhere that is sunny but away from harsh elements. Some roses have strong stems and grow into sophisticated trees, while others enjoy climbing and stretching vigorously. Some like to be guided on a trellis while others whirl about in wild abandon.  Still others love to grace borders in symmetry and shy others seem to enjoy living in small spaces on decks and against walls. In winter, the rose sleeps and in spring, it awakens to form flower buds - what it has dreamed about during the cold season. In summer it stirs and begins its re-entrance, fresh and renewed. It shakes out the new dress and dances in the sun. It produces its gifts to the garden until the frost comes again. Roses thrive on attention. When they are abandoned alas and are left on their own, they may appear to die down at first, but the strongest ones survive and continue to bloom unsuppressed in gardens that have long since grown into jungles of tangled overgrowth. The old rose is hard to destroy. Those who ask what women want, really ought to take time to consider the rose.