The Thorns Remain

by Jennifer Hartmann

I never expected her.

I read an article one time that said if you cuss a lot, you’re prone to having a healthier vocabulary and a higher intelligence. I’m gonna fucking go with that.

“Roses Fall, But The Thorns Remain”

“Truly beautiful things are like that sometimes, though, aren’t they?” She takes my hand and lays it on top of the washcloth, indicating I should keep it there. “They can cut you… they can make you bleed. But that’s how you know you’re alive.”

I have food poisoning. I have a mosquito bite that might be fatal. I’m thinking about my goldfish that died when I was seven, and I’m not in the right mental state. I might stab your husband with a meat thermometer.

“Never hold back. Never stop singing to the stars.”

I’ll wait forever, Josie Bennett.

Growth is uncomfortable… but getting uncomfortable is the only way to grow.

“Do the thorns make the rose any less beautiful?”

Roses grow in spite of the thorns. There’s beauty at the end of that painful stem. But only if it’s allowed to bloom.

“Life isn’t about what we deserve. It’s about what we choose.”

Life isn’t about what we deserve. It’s about what we choose. And sometimes life makes choices for us, choices that hurt, and that’s terrible and heart-rending, but we have the choice to let it break us or to persevere. To become stronger. Better. You can’t choose what life throws at you, but you can choose how you react to it.