A Lesson from the Spirit

"Look at this rose."

The Spirit held a red rose with thorns in his hands.

"As long as you touch its petals, as long as you caress these tender petals, everything is fine. But the moment you touch the stem, your blood will flow.
You have become used to not noticing everything, used to accepting only a part of what is given to you, only what you like, only what pleases your eye.
This rosebud — it is beautiful, it is gentle, it is affectionate. What feelings does it stir in you? Admiration, bliss, a sense of beauty? But the bud is not the rose; it is only part of the flower.
The part you refuse to accept is the part you do not wish to see; you reject it as if it does not exist. You cannot enjoy these flowers if you only cultivate buds; you must also cultivate the stem — you cannot plant a flowerbed with buds alone.
Learn to accept things and people in your life wholly and completely, with unconditional love, without 'ifs' and 'buts.'
Accept yourself and your neighbor as one unified whole.
'What should I do to avoid being pricked?'
'You could forcibly cut off all the thorns, but then it would no longer be a rose.'
You often think about forcibly correcting, roughly forcing change upon another or upon yourself.
Neither demand, nor roughness, nor violence will do it. Only through love — through your open heart full of the Creator's absolute, unconditional love for yourself and for those around you.
And you will begin to notice how new buds appear on that beautiful flowering bush, and they practically have no thorns. And even if there are thorns, you take the rose in your hand and it no longer pricks you.
Because you have accepted it, because you have accepted the flower as it is. You do not take it warily, you do not take it in fear of being hurt. You take it with tenderness, with love, and see that it does you no harm.
Do not be afraid to show this love to yourself, do not be afraid to cultivate this feeling within and give it to others.
The rose will remain a rose, let it be, but whether you carry wounds from its thorns depends on how you approach that rose.
So be it."