A Struggling Rose Taught Me To Breathe, Cut Back, And Live Fully

Unleash Her: The Next Chapter Begins

A single rose stem fought through shade, found the light, and bloomed anyway—and that small miracle became our guide for how women can cut back, take space, and grow stronger roots. We read the final excerpt from Unleash Her: The Next Chapter Begins and turn a backyard discovery into a vivid blueprint for choosing yourself without apology.

We start with the moment everyone said to rip out the “ugly” stem and replace it with something neat. Instead, we trimmed the overgrowth, waited, and watched the stem push new branches until it needed a bigger stake to hold the weight of its own success. That journey mirrors so many lives: suffocated by roles, starving for sunlight, still producing a bloom or two to prove we’re fine. We explore why pruning obligations is not loss but leverage, how boundaries invite breath, and where practical support—mentors, partners, better systems—turns fragile progress into lasting change.

From there, we go deeper on voice. If your calendar is choking your spirit, clarity is oxygen: ask for what you need at work, at home, and within yourself. We share language for clean requests, discuss how to anchor growth as opportunities expand, and talk about the moment when your branches lean with the weight of new wins. Finally, we widen the lens to sisterhood. The chorus of me too grows louder each year, and that solidarity is the trellis that keeps us upright while we bloom. If you’re ready to stop shrinking and start thriving, this conversation is your stake in the ground.

Want a signed copy of Unleash Her? We’re gifting five to listeners who message mailing details on LinkedIn or Instagram. If this story resonates, follow, share with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review—your words help more women find the light.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Mission
• 0:38 Book Feature And Giveaway
• 1:18 The Rosebush Discovery
• 2:10 Choosing To Nurture The Single Stem
• 2:45 Growth As A Mirror For The Self
• 4:03 From Survival To Thriving
• 5:03 The Symbol Becomes A Movement
• 6:06 Sisterhood And Shared Resolve

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hello everyone, this is Silver Rose's Podcast. This podcast was created for women by women to elevate women's voices. I sincerely hope you all had a wonderful week. Happy Friday. We made it. We are getting dangerously close to the holiday brush. In my mind mentally, by the way, we're already, we're already done for the year. That's and I think that might be because of the industry that I'm in, but nevertheless, because in my industry, usually folks start clocking out pretty early in December from like really paying attention to stuff. So it's it's very interesting. But yes, once we hit November in my field, it's very much like, oh no, the end is almost near. So today I'm reading the final excerpt from the anthology series that I um contributed to earlier this year. Book two, Unleash Her, the next chapter begins. I'm featured in this book with about 21 other authors. And I'm just I'm very excited to share all this with you. And I'll say it now. I am running not a contest, but you know, I guess giveaway, if you will, to the first five folks that message me with your address and mailing information. I will send you a copy of the book. So by the time this episode airs, hopefully there's still a few copies left. If you're interested in getting one signed from me, please message me. You can find me on LinkedIn and Instagram. So let me read an excerpt, the final one from my chapter. There is a set of bushes in the front of my home that we intended to chop down as they were wildly overgrown when we moved in. Upon further investigation, when we began cutting the bushes back, we noticed that there were actually three distinct bushes, two green shrubs and one rose bush that had been choked down to a single stem by the two shrubs. My husband and the landscaper insisted we remove the rose bush. They rationalized. It's a single stem, it won't survive, it looks ugly. We can replace it with a new bush, but I saw more. So I asked that the two shrubs be trimmed and provide space for my single rose stem. I have kept an eye on this single rose stem over the course of a year, and in the spring I saw the first signs of life beginning to sprout from this single stem. After several weeks, the branches protruding from the single stem have doubled and grown stronger, so I trimmed the hedges back even more and have provided support to this rosebush to continue its growth. This rosebush represents all of us. This rosebush represents me. Once upon a time not so long ago, my spirit, my soul, was slowly dying, and it was choked by the onslaught of pressure and tasks and roles I kept taking on. I was only saved when I started to let things fall away, in some instances, cut away, to allow myself to breathe, be in the moment, and thrive. Only then has my true happiness come into existence. Only now can I truly, authentically say that I'm living the life of my dreams. The rosebush is still thriving, I'm happy to report. And all of that is completely true. You know, I just kept looking at this rose bush as a symbol. And it's true. It was a single stick. The stem had grown up, just one stem had found its way up to the surface of this huge, just really overgrown bush. And the first year that we were in our home, we saw a rose come. And I was so excited that there was a rose bush there, but it was really just deep, buried deep within these other bushes. So when we finally got around to cutting everything back, again, it did. It looked ugly. It was ugly. It was just long single stem with one rose or a couple of roses that had protruded out of the top. Now think about it in this way. This rose bush fought the odds. It was being choked. It was, it's sunlight was being taken away. It's water was being taken away by these other overgrown plants. It still survived and it found its way to the surface. And not only did it find its way to the surface, but it still found its way to bloom. And with that bloom came the alignment with me. And I was able to see this bush and I was able to give it the space that it needed and the support that it needed to really thrive. And now this bush is pretty big. I'm not gonna lie. It's pretty big. I actually need to get something bigger to help it stand up because it does kind of fall forward a little bit now that it's so heavy. But that's also something beautiful as well in itself, because there's this bush that almost died and now it's thriving with the proper support, finding the proper alignment. This rose bush is now going to be with me for many, many, many years to come. And I couldn't stop thinking about it as a symbol of women and what we do to ourselves. We put ourselves into these boxes and we make ourselves fit into these molds that are almost preset for us in some instances. And this forceful constriction can only last for so long before that rosebud will try to burst its way out of the top. Now, yes, you can cut it back. Yes, you can force it back into the box and it will look neat and it'll work and everybody will be happy about it. But not that rosebush, not that fire inside of you, not your soul. None of that will be happy. And while aesthetically on the outside, you might look the part inside you are dying. That's where we have to draw the line. We cannot accept this anymore. We need to raise our voices, we need to elevate ourselves, we need to raise our hands, we need to ask for what we need for ourselves. We need to ask for what we need from our professions, from our marriages, from our children. We have to raise up. We have to use our voices. This is all that we have. And in doing so, there will be a sisterhood waiting for you to accept you and to say, yes, me too. I'm here too. I'm with you on this. Now, the voices might not be loud at first, but they will be eventually, because there is enough of us out there. And I hear it actually quite a bit from other women that are really trying to make a difference and trying to make waves in the world. There are a lot of us and we'll continue to grow in this fashion. With that, I again, if any of you are interested in receiving a signed copy of the book from me, be happy to send one over to you. Hopefully there's some remaining. I'm only sending out five. So if you have already messaged me with your name and address, you don't need to re-message me. I will will have already looked. So the first five will get the first five copies. I really appreciate all of you being here with me. I hope you found the little excerpts entertaining. I'm gonna read through the book myself because I do want to look at the more thoroughly at the other authors and what they had. And if there's anything else, I'll absolutely share it with you. Until then, I really appreciate all of you. Thank you so much for being here with me. And I will catch you on the next one. Take care.