Solitary White

I’ve been looking at a lot of the entries for this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge (theme: solitary). Many of them depict a lone person in one setting or another – all very nice photos. I do enjoy discovering how other people interpret these themes. And I love the challenge of deciding what each one means to me personally. I looked up solitary in the dictionary.

Solitary: adjective, noun

adjective

1. alone; without companions; unattended: a solitary passer-by.

2. living alone; avoiding the society of others: a solitary existence.

3. by itself; alone: one solitary house.

4. characterized by the absence of companions: a solitary journey.

5. done without assistance or accompaniment; done in solitude: solitary chores.

6. being the only one: a solitary exception (this is the one that caught my attention)

7. characterized by solitude, as a place; unfrequented, secluded, or lonely: a solitary cabin in the woods.

8. Zoology: living habitually alone or in pairs, as certain wasps.

noun

9. a person who lives alone or in solitude, or avoids the society of others.

10. a person who lives in solitude from religious motives.

11. solitary confinement.

I was walking around in the yard and the woods tonight, wondering what would be a good photo to represent solitary. As I walked past the miniature rosebush, its sadly unattended condition slapped my consciousness. But what did I find in the midst of that deplorably neglected specimen? A solitary white rose! It bespoke courage (it braved an entire summer of neglect), fortitude (no deer could subdue it), and stubbornness (just like its owner). I think it’s an Irish rose – I detected that familiar stubborn slant of the head (you’d think I had Irish ancestors, and blimey if you wouldn’t be right!). My Irish roots are showing. My mother used to tell me I’d argue with a fencepost – and I would, if it refused to move when I wanted to get by!

So – after much deliberation and even more coffee, I decided to introduce my Irish rose and her bedraggled buddies. She hangs out with a bunch of deadbeats, but she’s the light in their darkness. I’d like to be a light in the darkness too, and learn from this rose how to hang in there and thrive on neglect. Oh . . . and by the way . . . Ailsa at Where’s My Backpack? has a travel theme this week of white. Here’s my white rose, Ailsa!