Even the smallest gifts can bring great joy

A rose handed to a stranger lifts spirits and brings delight.

If I give you a rose, you willnot doubt God.

—St. Clement of Alexandria

A decade before he died, in my front yard my dad and I planted one deep red tea rose. I haven’t tended it as well as he would have in his prime, but it has survived and graced the block with three blossom spurts each year: mid-May, early August, and early October.

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