Jane Eyre Rose Bloom

 There's something beautiful about people who have tasted bitterness but are still determined to savor the sweetness life has to offer. You can feel it in their presence. They have a sense of calm warmth, and they refuse to let life take that from them. I love these kinds of people - people who have stayed gentle in a world that tried to harden them. They've known darkness but still offer their light to others. Their kindness is real and genuine, never a tactic or a strategy.— Case Kenny

This Jane Eyre Rose Bloom dress was released a couple of years ago and at the time I didn't have the funds for it, choosing instead to spend my dress allowance on The Unicorn Defends prints.  I never stopped loving it though, it always spoke to my soul of an autumn hearth and long winter evenings, warmth against the cold.  It seems perfect for the changing of the season, yes, it is finally starting to look and feel like fall outside.  

I don't know who Case Kenny is and I don't even remember where I read this quote, but I loved it so much that I immediately copied and pasted it into a post for later use and today it seems perfect.   It is not only a wonderful summary of hard life lessons we all have to learn and choices we have to make in the aftermath, but it also seems a fitting reference to one of my favorite fictional heroines, for whom this beautiful gown is also named, Ms. Jane Eyre.  

I was never a princess-type.  I noticed very early on that Barbies and princesses in stories were always blonde and rosy cheeked, in other words nothing like me.  So, it was always a comfort to read stories that led me to meet people like me, people like Jane.  I loved her immediately and devoured the book and one iteration of the movie which I probably watched at least a dozen times during those difficult teen years. *side note: my favorite film adaptation stars the brilliant Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt.  Definitely worth watching if you haven't the time to read the book.

As an adult, I relate to Jane on a deeper level.  There is something strangely freeing about losing everything, about your life (*spoiler alert*) figuratively or literally burning down around you because of some mad person or just the mad old world and then facing the decision to either lay down in the ashes or rise up from them.  The worst has happened; now it's time to decide how to live the rest of your life.  Jane could easily have been fearful, bitter, consumed by revenge, and she would have had every right to be so, but she wasn't.  When confronted with those who caused ruination in her life, she chose to forgive freely.   That may be the bravest and most heroic thing she did.

The greatest lesson we can glean from Jane and Kenny's quote is just this:  we cannot choose what life will throw at us; we can only chose how we will respond.  We can lash out with anger and cruelty, allow bitterness to poison us, or to forgive, go on loving, laugh, laugh, laugh as much as possible at the cruel mad world; we can live a good life inspite of the hardships we face.  I truly believe that.

Outfit Info:  Jane Eyre Rose Bloom Gown from Selkie is old, from the 2022 Autumn release, so it was thrifted.  Jewelry is old as well, purchased from a tiny little Kmart on a whim when I had a rare evening to myself in 2011.