Being a thistle...

Take the thistle... it has prickley stems and hurts to touch, but the flowers are pretty. I think a person can become like a thistle. You can have prickles or a thick skin finally after having a lot of things happen to you that you don't like. You can protect yourself from those things better as you get older, too, but it has to do something to you, turn you into a whole different plant. You can be a thistle and be ground into the dirt by a plough, and still come back up later or the next year. There is something eternal about a thistle.

I like to think I'm not a thistle, but more like a rose, protected but not totally spiney. But the thistle is stronger.