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Topics: Beauty, Love, Compassion
A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and
before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon
blossom and also the thorns. And he thought, *How can any beautiful
flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?* Saddened
by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready
to bloom, it died.
So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose.
The God like qualities planted in us at birth growing amid the thorns of
our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the
defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from
us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We
never realize our potential.
Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else
must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is
to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others.
This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and
knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him
realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he
will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty,
sixty, a hundred- fold as it is given to him.
Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their
roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should
feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.
(Inspirational submitted by Naomi Anne Brill)