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

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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.

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Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello everyone, this is Silver Rose's Podcast.
This podcast was created forwomen by women to elevate
women's voices.
I sincerely hope you all had awonderful week.
Happy Friday.
We made it.
We are getting dangerously closeto 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 bebecause of the industry that I'm

(00:21):
in, but nevertheless, because inmy industry, usually folks start
clocking out pretty early inDecember from like really paying
attention to stuff.
So it's it's very interesting.
But yes, once we hit November inmy field, it's very much like,
oh no, the end is almost near.
So today I'm reading the finalexcerpt from the anthology

(00:43):
series that I um contributed toearlier this year.
Book two, Unleash Her, the nextchapter begins.
I'm featured in this book withabout 21 other authors.
And I'm just I'm very excited toshare all this with you.
And I'll say it now.
I am running not a contest, butyou know, I guess giveaway, if
you will, to the first fivefolks that message me with your

(01:04):
address and mailing information.
I will send you a copy of thebook.
So by the time this episodeairs, hopefully there's still a
few copies left.
If you're interested in gettingone signed from me, please
message me.
You can find me on LinkedIn andInstagram.
So let me read an excerpt, thefinal one from my chapter.
There is a set of bushes in thefront of my home that we

(01:25):
intended to chop down as theywere wildly overgrown when we
moved in.
Upon further investigation, whenwe began cutting the bushes
back, we noticed that there wereactually three distinct bushes,
two green shrubs and one rosebush that had been choked down
to a single stem by the twoshrubs.
My husband and the landscaperinsisted we remove the rose
bush.
They rationalized.
It's a single stem, it won'tsurvive, it looks ugly.

(01:47):
We can replace it with a newbush, but I saw more.
So I asked that the two shrubsbe trimmed and provide space for
my single rose stem.
I have kept an eye on thissingle rose stem over the course
of a year, and in the spring Isaw the first signs of life
beginning to sprout from thissingle stem.
After several weeks, thebranches protruding from the
single stem have doubled andgrown stronger, so I trimmed the
hedges back even more and haveprovided support to this

(02:09):
rosebush to continue its growth.
This rosebush represents all ofus.
This rosebush represents me.
Once upon a time not so longago, my spirit, my soul, was
slowly dying, and it was chokedby the onslaught of pressure and
tasks and roles I kept takingon.
I was only saved when I startedto let things fall away, in some
instances, cut away, to allowmyself to breathe, be in the

(02:31):
moment, and thrive.
Only then has my true happinesscome 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 completelytrue.
You know, I just kept looking atthis rose bush as a symbol.
And it's true.

(02:52):
It was a single stick.
The stem had grown up, just onestem had found its way up to the
surface of this huge, justreally overgrown bush.
And the first year that we werein our home, we saw a rose come.
And I was so excited that therewas a rose bush there, but it
was really just deep, burieddeep within these other bushes.

(03:14):
So when we finally got around tocutting everything back, again,
it did.
It looked ugly.
It was ugly.
It was just long single stemwith one rose or a couple of
roses that had protruded out ofthe top.
Now think about it in this way.
This rose bush fought the odds.
It was being choked.
It was, it's sunlight was beingtaken away.
It's water was being taken awayby these other overgrown plants.

(03:36):
It still survived and it foundits way to the surface.
And not only did it find its wayto the surface, but it still
found its way to bloom.
And with that bloom came thealignment with me.
And I was able to see this bushand I was able to give it the
space that it needed and thesupport that it needed to really
thrive.
And now this bush is pretty big.

(03:56):
I'm not gonna lie.
It's pretty big.
I actually need to get somethingbigger to help it stand up
because it does kind of fallforward a little bit now that
it's so heavy.
But that's also somethingbeautiful as well in itself,
because there's this bush thatalmost died and now it's
thriving with the propersupport, finding the proper
alignment.
This rose bush is now going tobe with me for many, many, many

(04:16):
years to come.
And I couldn't stop thinkingabout it as a symbol of women
and what we do to ourselves.
We put ourselves into theseboxes and we make ourselves fit
into these molds that are almostpreset for us in some instances.
And this forceful constrictioncan only last for so long before

(04:37):
that rosebud will try to burstits way out of the top.
Now, yes, you can cut it back.
Yes, you can force it back intothe box and it will look neat
and it'll work and everybodywill be happy about it.
But not that rosebush, not thatfire inside of you, not your
soul.
None of that will be happy.
And while aesthetically on theoutside, you might look the part
inside you are dying.

(04:59):
That's where we have to draw theline.
We cannot accept this anymore.
We need to raise our voices, weneed to elevate ourselves, we
need to raise our hands, we needto ask for what we need for
ourselves.
We need to ask for what we needfrom our professions, from our
marriages, from our children.
We have to raise up.
We have to use our voices.

(05:20):
This is all that we have.
And in doing so, there will be asisterhood waiting for you to
accept you and to say, yes, metoo.
I'm here too.
I'm with you on this.
Now, the voices might not beloud at first, but they will be
eventually, because there isenough of us out there.
And I hear it actually quite abit from other women that are

(05:41):
really trying to make adifference and trying to make
waves in the world.
There are a lot of us and we'llcontinue to grow in this
fashion.
With that, I again, if any ofyou are interested in receiving
a signed copy of the book fromme, be happy to send one over to
you.
Hopefully there's someremaining.
I'm only sending out five.
So if you have already messagedme with your name and address,

(06:02):
you don't need to re-message me.
I will will have already looked.
So the first five will get thefirst five copies.
I really appreciate all of youbeing here with me.
I hope you found the littleexcerpts entertaining.
I'm gonna read through the bookmyself because I do want to look
at the more thoroughly at theother authors and what they had.
And if there's anything else,I'll absolutely share it with
you.
Until then, I really appreciateall of you.
Thank you so much for being herewith me.

(06:23):
And I will catch you on the nextone.
Take care.