The Rose

This page is dedicated to all the wonderful online friends I have made.
You who have made my life richer.
You who have been a true friend to someone you have never met.
You who have helped me over all the 'rough' spots that life has thrown me this last year.
You mean very much to me, and I hope this page can convey just a tiny bit of what I feel...

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 grow 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.

from
umair