“The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily
do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.
If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”
—Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
Theodore Roosevelt observed that “comparison is the thief of joy.” I’m sure you’ve felt this at some point. As soon as we develop the language skills to compare things, we notice who has the bigger slice of cake, who can run the fastest, who has more. And once we focus on these differences, it can be a painful learning process.
I remember feeling frustrated at school because I wasn’t as strong as or as athletic as the sportier children in my class. Instead of celebrating the fact that I could run and jump and skip, I focused on what I thought of was my weakness in other areas.
Comparison is the thief of joy—but celebration is its cure.
It’s all too easy to forget that, in the words of Wayne Dyer, we are really souls having a human experience. Preoccupying ourselves with ideas of sameness and difference causes us to overlook the fact that each soul is uniquely beautiful.
I’m reminded of this by the flowers in my garden. I have an abundance of wild daisies that grow with abandon wherever they get a chance. They welcome everybody who walks up the front steps. They make me smile whenever I open the garage and see them decorating the drive. They crop up in the most surprising places. To me, they are truly beautiful.
So you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that another name for these pretty flowers is Mexican fleabane! It made me laugh to think of whoever came up with this name looking at these pretty daisies, shaking their fists perhaps, and finding them a nuisance. What’s a bane to one person is a boon to another.
Every flower has its own charm. There’s no need to compare.
And so it is with us. Each of us is a bloom in the garden of life. We are not meant to be copies of each other. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux reminds us that the rose doesn’t outshine the daisy.
What if, instead of agonizing over comparisons, we allowed ourselves to acknowledge and celebrate our inner beauty? What if we delighted in the radiance of the whole garden instead?
Each soul has a unique gift to offer. When we stop comparing and start celebrating, joy blossoms within and all around us.
