I remember it as if it were yesterday. It may have been a birthday. I’m not sure of the exact date. My Mom gave me this music box with red roses and a butterfly that plays “Rose Garden.”
It was written Fifty-Five years ago by Joe South and sang by Lynn Anderson. For those of you that may not remember, here are the Lyrics:
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime.
When you take, you gotta give
So live and let live or let go, whoa-whoa-whoa
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden.
I could promise you things like big diamond rings
But you don’t find roses growin’ on stalks of clover
So you better think it over
Well, if sweet-talkin’ you could make it come true
I would give you the world right now on a silver platter
But what would it matter
So smile for awhile and let’s be jolly
Love shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
I could sing you a tune and promise you the moon
But if that’s what it takes to hold you
I’d just as soon let you go
But there’s one thing I want you to know
You better look before you leap, still waters run deep
And there won’t always be someone there to pull you out
And you know what I’m talkin’ about
So smile for awhile and let’s be jolly
Love shouldn’t be so melancholy
Come along and share the good times while we can
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden!
Now, this was obviously penned a Love Song and talking about a relationship, but my Mom had another reason for buying me this Music Box. She wanted me to get ONE POINT and ONE POINT ONLY!
In my teenaged mind, with very little experience of “Real Life” I was down right resentful towards my Mother for giving me this music box. Not the music box itself, of course. It was the song…”I NEVER PROMISED YOU A ROSE GARDEN!”
All kinds of things ran through my mind: “Thanks, but no thanks! I’m not signing up for a life filled with heartache and pain. Ain’t happening! How could you be so negative mom?” I did not want to hear this—or her negative outlook on life. Talk about bursting my perfect little bubble in my heavily sheltered world.
Listen, I grew up in Fremont, Nebraska. It was a teeny tiny town in the Midwest with twenty-thousand people. I had no unearthly idea what life was like in a big city or any where else remotely close to that. My worldly scope was about as far as the end of my nose. Naturally, I had a very limited perspective.
For years every time I looked at the music box, I wanted to throw my hand up and say, STOP! I don’t wanna hear this nonsense! MY LIFE will be better than this.
It wasn’t until many years later, when I was married with kids, and life had started happening…that I suddenly realized, my mom was subtly trying to tell me in her own special way that “LIFE WAS NOT GOING TO BE EASY.”
As we began experiencing the heartache and pain that so many talk about—that this song talks about—the blinders suddenly came off and I GOT IT!
Life is definitely not a ROSE GARDEN. Life is plumb full of prickly thorns. We’ll be thrown many unexpected curve balls, go through lots of highs and lots of lows. Mountain top experiences and valleys of despair.
For me, I learned that I can’t go it alone. I pray much more than I ever thought I would and hey, I’m still standing. Most of the time I’m smiling, even through the tears.
Thanks mom for the subtle wake up call. I may have not appreciated it nor understood it at sixteen-ish, but I GOT IT NOW. Life definitely hasn’t been a Rose Garden, but I’ve grown leaps and bounds through it all. I’m not only STILL STANDING…I’m a whole lot wiser. Thank You Mama…THANK YOU!
I remember hearing a quote over and over again and it seems applicable here: “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.” That TEACHER was the MUSIC BOX now in my Curio Cabinet that plays, “I-NEVER-PROMISED-YOU-A-ROSE-GARDEN!”
