When you fall in love the relationship is like a lovely Rose Tree – delicate, beautiful, graceful. You guard it fiercely, you water it all the time and make sure its roots are in good soil and that it gets lots of sunshine. It responds by growing strong and beautiful and elegant. It is an intense emotional response.

In time it is doing so well that you start to plant other trees around it. The woman makes a child tree, the man a sport tree. But the Rose Tree flourishes. It is nourished by these small trees growing nearby. So more trees are planted by her – an exercise tree, a friend tree, a travel tree, and he indulges in growing a travel tree too and a work tree. He fosters these and she fosters hers and they grow tall and green and strong. But the Rose Tree is not getting the sun. The other trees are blocking it out. They are undermining the root system and the rose tree begins to wither until it is left with a few blossoms and a few leaves. A trickle of water is barely keeping it alive. It is starved for time and light. But it is very hard to cut back all those other tall, strong trees. They are so important now – and the rose tree is so delicate. These strong trees staunch the yearning for romance. They make you forget it ever existed. The pain of love is forgotten. Now we have just the duties of a life well-lived cocoon like. A life well-traveled but never outside its own safety net. A life without Paris, though you promised to always have Paris.

The rose tree – we weep for it and yearn for it but we cannot bring ourselves, stir ourselves to do the work needed to revive it. And the world goes on and time goes by and we wither inside. For our soul is the Rose Tree. It is our music, our love.

By Tina