The rose within

(photo: Jocelyn Ting)

It’s Valentine’s Day. Early morning, a friend sent me a SMS, it reads –

Love yourself. Love yourself for where you’ve come from and how you’ve arrived here. Love yourself for where you are. And when you leave here, love yourself for the process of moving forward. No matter what happens, just love yourself while it’s happening, this is the way to honour the truth of who you really are. You are loved by this wise lady called Barbara De Angelis.

One of the “must” for Valentine’s Day is roses. Yes, roses, roses, roses everywhere.

I have a group of journalists working with me in the same office. I took a survey just before the end of the day to see if there were roses around.

A young charming journalist had one young bud in a vase on her table. She excitedly told me that she picked up the bud from the street and said the bud would soon blossom.

One male journalist jokingly said, “How can any beautiful flower come from the bud with so many thorns?

“No, within every bud, there is a rose. You have to water it.” Another remarked.

As it is with buds that will blossom into roses, within every soul there is a rose also.

There are many people who look themselves and see only the thorns, the faults. They despair, thinking that nothing good possibly come from them. They never nurture the good within them.

On valentine’s day, love yourself, reach past the thorns of your life, and let the rose within blossom many times over…Yes, within every soul there is a rose…

Most of all, Love God!

(This is a recycled post. Happy Valentine, may your day be filled with beautiful things and thoughts!)

God's Perfecting

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Much of the thoughts here is "recycled" from my blog post in 2007.

I have been attending a “high-power” meeting in KL about once every two months for the past decade. I have always amused myself as the “outstanding one” being always the only woman in the meeting, and being the only one who is not “high-power”.

For the past ten years, there are change of faces. Members of the board are actually representing the media, universities and government departments. I have been through with five terms of different Chairman.

While I remain, there was another journalist who remained for six years. (He had left after the third term) He was also the “outstanding” one, but among the gentlemen – he was the only one without a lounge suite on. He wore “black and white”.

I like his white shirts and black trousers – always neat, clean and classy. At one time, in the same meeting, he wore a “starched-shirt”. I could not see one “crease” on his shirt when he entered the meeting room.

“Oh, you starched your shirt so well,” I bubbled out the words.

He surprised me and all others who were early for the meeting with details on how to starch the shirt, how to iron – from A to Z, from good old days to modern days method.

As he talked and I listened, I visualized his hands moved with impressive deftness and dexterity on the shirts. And lo! a perfectly pressed, starched shirt in front of my eyes!

Is it not a perfecting picture of the workings of God? Is He not starching and ironing our worldly passions and pursuits and constantly perfecting us?

Let Him!