In 1794, Robert Burns was working diligently to preserve traditional Scottish tunes for the future…the most famous of which is “Auld Lang Syne”. One of the songs he worked on was this:

“My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose”

O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in june;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune:

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry;

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

Mr. Virgo used to work at the Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs. He was the Food and Beverage Director, and once a year, the Annual Robert Burns Dinner was held there. Think men in kilts, good single malts served in proper thick-bottomed scotch glasses, steaming haggis, neeps and tatties…all to the tunes of bagpipes. Oh, he loved that dinner….so steeped in tradition and manly things and cigars. The highlight of the evening is the recitation of Burns’s “To a Haggis”, during which the haggis is ceremoniously split open. Followed by lots of drinking and dancing and entertainment…all to celebrate the life of Scotland’s favorite son. 

This was in January 2008. Mr. Virgo and I hadn’t been married a year yet. And then…just a couple of weeks later, the hotel went into receivership and budget cuts came hot and heavy. I soon came to learn, the Food and Beverage Director is a great job…till there are budget cuts. Then it’s one of the first to go. That sent us in a totally new direction and we moved shortly after to Pagosa Springs for a completely different adventure. So much has changed since that first married winter with a man now gone over seven years.

Here at the Ponderosa, where I share another newly married life with Mr. FixIt and a little black cat, there is a tiny rose bush that we are convinced will never survive another winter. I’m not good with plants as a rule, and this straggly looking thing is no exception.  Mr. FixIt prunes it a little and dusts it for bugs and we leave it to its own devices. Then, just like clockwork, a single red, red rose bursts forth in all its glory…”newly sprung in June.” I cannot help but think back to another time and another place and another love. Not in sadness…not even with longing….but, with a smile from this bonnie lass, tho’ it were ten thousand mile…while the sands o’ life shall run.

I recently spoke with a woman newly widowed. She is not in a place where she can understand the full impact of what has happened to her yet. So, she certainly can’t see how the joy I promise she will one day feel again will ever be possible. It’s out there, though. It can’t be rushed. It’s like the red, red rose. One day you’ll walk outside and there will be a brilliant flash of color. Color the likes of which you haven’t seen for so long, you dared not hope to see it again. Yet here it is…right before your eyes. It is in that moment when you know…joy really WILL come again.

❤️

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

#Faith, #Hope, #Love