Human Beings and Flowers

I have flowers blooming, and plants growing, in January.  Being originally from Wisconsin it is hard for me to believe I have a garden on my patio now, one of the nice advantages of living in Southern California's climate.  I am hard pressed to tell you the names of the flowers and plants because I just buy what looks nice together and blends well with each other.  I am not concerned with their names, scientific or otherwise.  I do know some of my flowers are carnations, pansies, bouganvilla, geraniums and beautiful rose plant with one red rose.  The bouganvilla, geraniums and the rose plant need to be pruned, and after a period of being dormant, they bloom again even more vibrantly.  It is almost painful for me to cut my flowers back because it is almost as if I am being trimmed as well, and actually, as an analogy, that is true. In the flower world, as well as the human world, we not only go through cycles of inactivity or dormancy, but the trials and tribulations we go through could be considered like the pruning process so we can grow.  My red rose blooms all year and is so beautiful and yet it has thorns.  Making another analogy, we, like roses have our thorns, or flaws.  Perfection is only an ideal.