Rose

Sunday at church there was a rose celebrating the recent birth of a new baby girl in the church family. As we were cleaning up from the potluck, I asked if someone was taking the flower to the family. One of the pastors explained the flower would be dried and later put into some sort of the frame for the family. She asked if I had ever dried flowers and I spoke up that I had my grandmother's flower press. I have never used it and thought immediately "you idiot! What if you mess up this family's special rose?!" The pastor's reassured me I couldn't excede the "mess ups" from the other pastor and told me to take a whirl at it. Here is what I wrote to them tonight: "Even though I am still searching for signs from God on the path I should take in life, I was reminded to stop worrying tonight. I finally got the courage to try the flower press. While I have dried roses before hanging them upside down, I haven't used a flower press. As I unscrewed the top I began talking out loud to myself. "I just put the petals on the cardboard right? Okay, maybe I should try drying each petal right? I bet I'm supposed to put the petals on this green part on each layer huh?" It was here that I got a sign. I picked up a green piece, flipped it over and found some flowers my grandmother had dried. I continued to remove the green layers until I found many more. I immediately thought how beautiful they will be in a frame. My sweet grandmother who lived just around the corner from me and died in 2008 was with me tonight. So, I proceeded to take apart the whole rose petal by petal and placed it in between the flower press. I'm not sure how long I keep it in there, but MeMe will tell me when it's time."