02/07/2025
https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1358852862267121&id=100044272607201
The Rose, the W**d, and the Fountain
A student stayed back after class.
He waited until the others had left,
then walked up to his professor and said:
“Professor… I’ve been thinking about everything you teach us about happiness.
And I love it. But… I don’t feel it.
My life feels like one big race.
I’m always stressed.
Always chasing something — grades, goals, the next big thing.
But I never feel calm.
I never feel present.”
The professor looked at him kindly.
“Come with me,” he said.
They walked to the professor’s home,
a quiet place with a small garden in the back.
In one corner, a rose bush was in full bloom,
rich red petals, glowing in the afternoon sun.
Next to it, a rough, thorny w**d grew along the soil.
The professor pointed to the rose.
“That,” he said, “is the moment everyone waits for.
It’s beautiful.
It gets all the attention.
People stop to admire it, its color, its scent.
But it only lasts a short while.”
Then he pointed to the w**d.
“Most people want this one gone,” he said.
“It’s not pretty. It gets overlooked.
But it’s strong. It holds the soil together.
It feeds the ground. It survives storms without anyone noticing.”
He knelt down and gently dug around its base,
then pulled it from the ground.
At the bottom was a small, edible root.
“This little plant,” he said,
“doesn’t wait for praise. It just does what it’s meant to do.”
The student stood there, listening.
Then the professor led him to a small stone fountain,
where a single drop of water fell into a bowl every few seconds.
Plink.
Plink.
Plink.
“Imagine this is your life,” the professor said.
“One drop at a time.
You can wait for the flood,
the big success, the perfect day, the magical answer.
Or…
You can learn to notice the drops.
Because that’s where life is actually happening.”
The student stayed silent, watching the water.
And the professor said quietly:
“Happiness isn’t something you find later.
It’s in the way you tend to your garden now,
in the joy of a blooming rose,
and in the quiet strength of a w**d.
In the little drops you usually overlook.”
He paused.
“The real secret?
It’s not about chasing peace.
It’s about learning to see it.”
