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   |  |  From:   °Samoy°°  (Original Message) | Sent: 1/16/2005 10:40 PM |   
                                    Happiness         Happiness is something  that is never far away -  it's as close as the things  we do and we say,  so start this new year  with a smile on your face  and make this old world  a happier place.        (Helen Steiner Rice)    |            |       |  
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  A Rose Within            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  he 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 
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