Dec 13th, 2012

Seeing Beauty in a New Light: Rose Edition

Photos & text by Jonah Holland, PR & Marketing Coordinator, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Recently, I’ve been struck by how beautiful the Garden is even in winter.  I’m sure it happens each year, that as the light dims, and the days get colder, I notice the lovely things I come across  more deliberately and appreciate them more, because they seem to be fewer.  For now, I’m reveling in the patchy sunlight — short though it may be.  And I’m finding incredible beauty in our Rose Garden — both in blooms that are spent — and ones that haven’t yet been kissed by the frost.

I used to think that no one would want to see a photo of an imperfect bloom on our blog.  But now I see that it’s not imperfection, but nature shining a new light on the way we look at things.  The frost-kissed rose is not the fresh new bud just opening for the first time, but it has an ethereal quality none-the-less. And I love it because of its imperfection and maturity.

It reminds me of my own mortality,  as I seize each day and embrace it for what it is — rather than what I might wish for it to be.

 

 

Jonah Holland is Digital Content Manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where she has worked for 14 years overseeing social media, the blog, and the website. She is also a mom, yogi, open water swimmer, gardener, and seeker. She's been known to go for a walk in the Garden and come back with hundreds of plant photos, completely inspired to write her next blog post.

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