A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully. <br />Before it blossomed, he examined it. <br />He saw a bud that would soon blossom. <br />He also saw the thorns, and he thought, <br />'How can any beautiful flower come from a plant, <br />burdened with so many sharp thorns? ' <br />Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, <br />and before it was ready to bloom, it died. <br />So it is with many people... <br />Within every soul... there is a Rose. <br />The 'G-d-like' qualities planted in us at birth, <br />growing amidst the thorns of our faults <br />Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. <br />We despair, thinking nothing good can possibly come from us. <br />We neglect to water the good within us, <br />and eventually it dies. <br />We never realize our potential. <br />Some don't see the rose within themselves... <br />It takes someone else to show it to them. <br />One of the greatest gifts a person can possess... <br />is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. <br />This is the truest, most innocent, and gracious characteristic of love - <br />to know another person, <br />including their faults, recognize the nobility in their soul, <br />and yet still help another to realize they can overcome their faults. <br />If we show them the rose, they will conquer the thorns. <br />Only then will they blossom, <br />and most likely, blooming thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold, <br />as it is given to them. <br />Our duty in this world is to help others, <br />by showing them their roses and not their thorns. <br />It is then that we achieve the love we should feel for each other. <br />Only then can we bloom in our own garden.<br /><br />Tafadzwa Mhondiwa Mugari<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/of-roses-and-thorns/
