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A Rose Tree She Imagined

Florence Scovel Shinn tells a simple story about a desire that seemed almost too small to matter.

One Easter, she noticed several beautiful rose trees displayed in the windows of florists.

She wished she would receive one.

For just an instant, she imagined the rose tree being carried through her door.

She did not describe a long visualization.

She did not spend hours thinking about it.

She simply formed the image in her mind.

When Easter arrived, a beautiful rose tree was delivered to her.

The following day, she thanked the friend who had sent it and told her that it was exactly what she had wanted.

Her friend was surprised.

She replied that she had not sent a rose tree at all.

She had ordered lilies.

The florist had mixed up the order.

Somehow, the mistake had resulted in Florence receiving exactly what she had imagined.

Florence saw this as an example of the law in action: a desire had been impressed upon the mind and had found expression through an unexpected chain of events.

"The imagination is the first action. The outer world follows its own path."

— Edmar Sasaki

Feeling Is The Bridge

What makes this story especially interesting is how little seemed to happen.

There was no elaborate plan.

No physical effort.

No attempt to control another person.

There was simply a desire, followed by an image.

And Florence tells us that the image lasted only for an instant.

This is important.

We sometimes believe that we must repeat an idea endlessly before it can become part of our experience.

But perhaps repetition is not the only way an impression can become powerful.

Sometimes a single moment, when accompanied by genuine feeling, can leave a deep impression.

The experience may be brief.

But the impression can remain.

In this story, the physical action came later—and Florence herself did not know what that action would be.

She did not need to arrange the delivery.

She did not need to determine who would send the rose tree.

She did not need to know how it would happen.

Her part was inward.

She desired.

She imagined.

She accepted the image.

And then life took care of the sequence of events.

This brings us back to something important about action.

We often think that action begins when we physically do something.

But the first action has already taken place when we deliberately move our consciousness in a new direction.

Imagination is not preparation for action.

Imagination is the first action.

What happens afterward may involve physical movement—or it may not.

Sometimes intuition will reveal the next step, as it did with the woman who had eight dollars.

Sometimes no immediate action is required at all.

What matters is that the inner movement has already begun.

Perhaps this is what it means to wish without worrying.

To desire something without immediately becoming concerned about how it will happen.

To allow the imagination to make the first move, and then remain open to the way the experience unfolds.

So perhaps the question is not:

"How many times do I need to imagine this?"

But:

"Has this become real enough within me that I no longer need to force it?"

Sometimes the bridge is built through repetition.

Sometimes it is built in a single, deeply felt moment.

But in either case, the movement begins within.

The imagination is the first action.

The feeling is the bridge.

Feeling Is The Bridge