Kind of a different story . . .

I've been feeling pretty stressed and kind of sad lately. I woke up today with this feeling of "why am I living in this strange city all by myself?"  So I decided to do the one thing guaranteed to cheer me up: go to the library (you had to see that coming if you've been reading this blog for any length of time!). Feeling that drastic measures were called for I figured I'd better go all out and head over to the Central branch. As usual, it worked and by the time I left I was feeling much better.

On my way home I drove past the State Capital Park and noticed all the roses blooming in the garden. On an impulse I stopped and spent about an hour walking around the park and admiring the roses. Yellow roses always make me think of my Mom because yellow was her favorite color and she liked yellow roses. While I was looking at the one in the picture, I happened to glance down and see the sign. This rose is called Gift of Life and was introduced in 1999. My Mom died in 1999 and, silly as it may sound, this just felt like some kind of sign to me. I sat down on the bench next to the rosebush and cried. My mother was not a demonstrative person but when I'd get upset sometimes she'd hold my hand. While I was sitting there crying I felt like she was with me holding my hand. And I felt like everything was really going to be ok and that she was telling me I hadn't made bad choices. (Shoot I'm crying again now!)

So I don't know . . . going to the library was pretty much an impulse. Driving home past the park was because the light changed so I turned onto that street. Stopping was an impulse and this rose was the first one whose sign I noticed. I guess they were all random chances but they combined to make me feel a lot better today!