My Rosebud

~A Rose Within~

A certain woman planted a rose and watered it faithfully,

and before it blossomed, she examined it.

She saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the thorns.

and she thought, "How can any beautiful flower

come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?"

and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

Saddened by this thought, she neglected to water the rose,

So it is with many people.

Within every soul there is a rose.

The god-like qualities planted in us at birth

grow amid the thorns of our faults.

Many of us look at ourselves

and see only the thorns and the defects.

We despair, thinking that nothing good

can possibly come from us.

We neglect to water the good withn 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 chacteristic of love,

to look at a person, and knowing her faults,

overcome her faults.

and help her realize that she can

recognize the nobility in her soul,

If we show her the rose,

she will conquer the thorns,

Then will she blossom, blooming forth thirty,

sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to her.

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.

This page is dedicated to the cornerstone of my life.

My wife, Deneese

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