Thought 18JUN2008

SIMPLY SAID
Fresh flowers are such a lovely thing of beauty. Once in a while I pick a bouquet or a single perfect rose to give to a neighbour, friend or relative. Early one morning I gathered a beautiful bouquet of sweet-smelling long-stemmed roses for myself. The roses were definitely a delight for my eyes. While I thought about how pleasing they were for me to enjoy, a calm, gentle voice outside of myself simply said, Give them to your friend. I went straight into the house and arranged the roses in a vase. Then I wrote this note as small as I could ... For my friend. I went across the street to my neighbour's, who is also one of my closest friends and I left the bouquet at the front door.
Later that day my friend called to thank me. She said the flowers were a true blessing. Late the night before she had been arguing with one of her children. Being cruel, as teenagers can sometimes be, her child said to her, "You have no friends." What a surprise when she went to leave for work that morning and found not just the blessings of the bouquet of flowers, but the tiny note which simply said "For my friend."
Roberta Tremblay - extracted from 'A cup of chicken soup for the soul', Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen & Barry Spilchuk, Health Communications, Inc., 1996
If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow - Chinese Proverb