A Day To See The Roses

More than this

You know there's nothing

More than this...

Bryan Ferry, "More Than This"

My Mother's Day began with the smell of bacon waking me up. I followed my nose to the kitchen, where I discovered my husband making strawberry pancakes, which I enjoyed immensely. After breakfast, we got ready and headed to church. Service was great, as usual. After service, we headed home to eat leftovers... I know, how anticlimatic. But it was my choice as my morning indulgence in pancakes left me unable to think of eating a big lunch out. After lunch the question was: what do we do now? I mentioned wanting to visit the McGill Rose Garden, as I had gotten an email earlier in the week saying that they were having their annual Mother's Day garden celebration, which is free! Curt liked the sound of that, so we loaded everyone (except the 16 yo who is 1) too cool for rose gardens and 2) working on a paper for school) in the van and trekked downtown (or uptown as some prefer) to stop and smell the roses.

Our family-- we found a generous man to take our photo

Curt and me-- both squinting into the bright sunlight

Musical entertainment for garden visitors

This train car is parked in the middle of the garden, surrounded by roses. The kids had to climb on the train!

Unique sculptures sit in parts of the garden

I loved this "4th of July" variety of rose, with the red and white striped blooms

A view of part of the garden

In the middle of the urban city landscape lies this oasis of beauty. We enjoyed seeing the thousands of roses and appreciating the colorful display. It was something different to do for Mother's Day and seemed fitting to spend time amongst flowers, celebrating the time we have together as a family and making a unique memory for all of us. I know this is one Mother's Day I will always remember... not because we spent a lot of money or went to a fancy restaurant, but because we spent time together and appreciated how precious that is. My 12 yo son said to me as we were walking through the garden, "All these roses remind me of what Uncle Bob said at Stephanie's wedding. How some people look at roses and say 'It's too bad they have thorns.' But instead we can say, 'Isn't it great that thorns have roses.'"

I guess that's what Mother's Day is all about... a day to see the roses. Motherhood is a tough job-- there will always be plenty of thorns. As a mom I can see the thorns or I can focus on the roses. As I walked through the garden with these people who made me a mom, I saw roses everywhere I looked. And the most beautiful ones weren't the ones growing in the ground.

PS. We weren't the only ones to enjoy the roses. Click here to see a slideshow from our newspaper.