One Thousand Roses

Celebrating World Friendship Day with One Thousand Roses

Herren Project is happy to honor and celebrate World Friendship Day on July 30th as we recognize the value of peer support, human connection, and community-building in recovery and prevention. Friendship is foundational to wellness. We salute the small gestures that each of us makes to each other as we share a little of ourselves in a group or take on the role of peer counselor to support someone in early recovery. We know that peer support is impactful; it increases the chances of sustained recovery and brings the weight of influence in adolescence when other authorities fail. Herren Project’s recovery scholarships and prevention programs incorporate peer elements in their design. We know there is power in giving and receiving, sharing a personal story that resonates “just like you” and imparting experience, strength, and hope. We are stronger when we see ourselves in others and connect on common ground.

One Thousand Roses celebrates the contributions we make to each other and the little ways we make a difference. One token of love, one act of kindness, one proverb or song to share, one gift to help another, one inspired action — which together extend and carry forward a legacy of love. Please join us in the spirit of friendship. Look out for a friend. Bring a little joy into someone’s life. Help us spread the roses.

One Thousand Roses by Teresa Cobleigh

When the days grow long, and the sunsets alight the clouds in pink and tangerine, and Juliet saunters across the stage with her rose by any other name as sweet, I think of our inspired words and deeds that speak through time and heart to heart. When June unfolds to greet the heat, and the troubadour sings Ben King’s Stand By Me, as years march on to leave legacies in spirited songs and poetry, I think of what connects us rather than what keeps us apart.

For amongst us divided, looming questions, uncertainty —democracy, earth’s vitality, war in lands across the sea —it is also hard not to see the pearls that unite us in our humanity.

A step outside brings sweet relief from the news of chaos on our streets. I set off to meander, furry friend upon his leash, and the climbing roses in full display call me to attention — their breathtaking beauty in a colorful array of crimson, yellow, and velvet peach. And I am reminded of passion and poetry and Robert Frost— miles to go before I sleep —as my eyes settle to consider the roses and the promise of a young girl named St. Therese. For I have heard her voice echo through time, and her words have stirred a calling in me; St. Therese, the Little Flower, and her little way—the little gifts, the words you say–and the big difference a gesture might make. St. Therese promised to come back to earth to spread one thousand roses; each rose an act of loving kindness to a friend in need, to make one thousand little ripples in the sea that may one day surge as a giant wave. A wave of love, heralding in a new vibration of higher frequency.

Her promise resonates with one like me (For what’s in the name, sweet Therese?)

In a world of big questions, we seem so meek,

What can I do but help spread your roses?

For you might pay a heavy price

To find the meaning of your life

You might search upon the sky

St. Therese hears you cry

St. Therese with her roses across the winds of time

Promised to spread roses one rosebud at a time

One thousand acts of kindness

One thousand acts of love

St. Therese gives us roses for us to share our love

Saint Therese, shine your light

May you sanctify my life

I will try to spread your roses

I will try, I will try

Some people hear a call

Some, like me, humbly spread their seeds

A thousand actions, words, or deeds

Born of a heart that weeps and bleeds

A brilliant scarlet for the ripest of rosebuds

That may one day blossom in their time

And that’s the best I might hope for

Sometimes a friend is all we need;

A good friend can answer a mother’s prayer.

A welcoming hand for a fellow traveler

can mean the difference for one floundering in their day or week,

like the stranger who handed an old Irish proverb on a little note to keep:

“There are good ships, and there are wood ships, the ships that sail the sea. But the best ships are friendships, and may they always be.”

And that little message was received by one sad and in need, one not unlike you or me, one wavering in his recovery to make a world of difference.

Inspired acts. To be the staff, extending reach to those of us considered least, or wandering wayward, lonely sheep, and for the love of the shepherd.