Roses for Awake Living by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

The Way of the Heart

When the human being is consciously fulfilled, blessings appear in every aspect of our lives. Full embodiment of the Heart is the precious gift that becomes the art of Awake Living. We live the natural way of the Heart in a profoundly human manner that is globally undivided. This unity is in cooperation with humanity, the living earth, its vital environment and in harmony with the welfare of its creatures.

The quality in which we live is not one of personal choice that is mentally selected as a right way based upon moral virtues, but rather the organic outcome of total surrender to the Heart. The spirit is consciously integrated as we contemplate our relationships, professions, investments, health, schools and politics. It is not that living becomes a spiritual practice, but rather our multi-diversity is appreciated as a symphony of love in action.

We have assimilated a balance in our daily lives that includes the spiritual in every encounter as it appears. We are virtually a free instrument of the Heart and selflessly serve Its way. Awake Living is conscious that we are being lived for the good of the whole.


Four Roses

The roses are limitless in this abundant Garden. Today, I offer you four; they are compassion, service, gratitude and unconditional love. Each has been chosen for its fragrance, brilliance and foremost for its power in turning the "mind's life" around, to the open way of the Heart.


The pink rose of true compassion is a gift of basic goodness to alleviate the suffering of others. Compassion flows from the emptiness and its cultivation purifies the mind. You allow your heart to be touched and are deeply empathetic with human conditions, while compassion stirs you to right action. Compassion is the work of goodwill and fosters gentle kindness. You are the whole and embrace the creatures of the earth and protect the natural beauty of nature.

This compassion includes a feeling of the joy that appears in others' lives with equal warmth and gratitude. You care for life for what life is and for who you are.


The white rose is a gift of purity and innocence in the silence of serving others, the earth and its creatures. It is silent in that the service is selfless and humble, free of personal interest or concern for outcome. With no motive in service, the quality is far beyond the mind and its ideas.


The fuchsia rose is one of gratitude for the life that appears each moment. You express gratitude to others, the greater life for its abundance, the earth for its trees, the sea for its gifts, other living creatures and insects for their service to life and even the weeds that you pull as you smell the earth to grow your rose garden. In the end, gratitude just overflows until a grateful Heart is all there is.


The red rose of unconditional love is the greatest, since virtually every soft petal contains all of the others and indeed, the entire Garden of Awake Living. This affectionate gift appreciates life's truest passion for loving with patience, humility, forgiveness and emotional maturity. You are kind and in harmony with living, instead of throwing life around.

We have differences in the human mind and have differing perspectives, however at Heart, we are one life in essence. Awake Living is not attached to individual perspectives as though they were our personal identity. We are open to the whole, so that human diversity is respected with tolerance or perhaps even fascination.

This receptivity emulates a love that offers a broader reality for the family, spirituality, society, workplace, environment, science and the arts. In this manner, we live in cooperation and acceptance with mutual appreciation and enthusiasm.

Since we are love, we are not searching where to get it. Instead, we are watchful for every opportunity to overflow the greatest gift of the Heart.

Katie Davis Website www.KatieDavis.org

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