My good friend, Marie Hartman, sent me this Chinese
proverb.
An elderly Chinese
woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried
across her neck.
One of the pots had a
crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion
of water. At the end of the long walks
from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years
this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of
water. Of course, the perfect pot was
proud of its accomplishments. But the
poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it
could only do half of what it had been made to do.
After two years of what
it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the
stream. 'I am ashamed of myself, because
this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house.'
The old woman smiled,
'Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the
other pot's side?'
'That's because I have
always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the
path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.
'For two years I have
been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there
would not be this beauty to grace the house.'
Each of us has our own
unique flaw. But it's the cracks and
flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and
rewarding. You've just got to take each
person for what they are and look for the good in them.
Wonderful story! Of course, everything suggests a sculpture to me! As well as an uplifting, loving thought.
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