Cultivating Roses

Dedicated to everyone that is helping me blossom. May I do the same for others. plk


ROSES AND THORNS

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.

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.

-- Author Unknown

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I've never met a person, I don't care what his condition,
in whom I could not see possiblilites.

I don't care how much a man may consider himself a failure.
I believe in him, for he can change the thing that is wrong in
his life any time he is ready and prepared to do it. Whenever
he develops the desire he can take away from his life the thing
that is defeating it. The capacity for reformation and change
lies within.

Preston Bradley

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I will make love my greatest weapon and none on who I call can
defend against its force....My love will melt all hearts liken to the
sun whose rays soften the coldest day.

-- Og Mandino