The Dead Rose

The Dead Rose (Click picture for larger image)

"Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring."
~ Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

A few days ago this rose was in full bloom, fragrant, with soft velvety petals. A few days before that it was a tight red bud not yet opened but ready for life. Now it is spent; the petals have turned brown, withered and dropped to the ground.

Love is like this. It holds promise of the future, it is here today in full bloom; joyous, expectant and then suddenly gone. Love has to be savored and nurtured to last. Sometimes this is possible, sometimes not.

Submission to Moody Monday for topic "dead". (end of post)