Cracked Pots

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 walk 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 2 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.

That's a very nice fable. It makes me glad to be a little cracked.

Lauren, that is such a special story. Thanks
sidney

It certainly does strip away the negative connotations generally associated with being a "crack pot" now doesn't it! When it was sent to me, I almost deleted it thinking, oh no... not another e-mail that if I don't respond bad luck will befall me for 7 years or who knows what evils will befall you if you don't forward it to your entire address book. I was quite pleasantly surprised and it made me glad to be a crack pot too.

Hey Sidney! How be you? I've pulled about 1000 weeds in the last week. It rained and they slid outa the ground like buttah! Oh how I love ripping their roots out of their comfy soil. It makes my heart leap with joy!

Doing great. So much of my furtile sand comes up with each weed that I have perfected anew grab, shake, and pull at one time technique. It's rather an 'art'.
lol
sidney

Tee he! A perfected GSP, eh! I shake (sometimes I whack them) them too. No sense letting those weeds go out of this world to the garbage with so much as the tinitest bit of earth clinging to their roots.

Thanks for the story. It makes me feel better about my "cracks".

I loved your story and will be saving it for a reminder when I don't feel completely strong. I also have a sister that thinks she has many flaws, but has a heart of gold. I will be sending her this message too.

Donna

We all have flaws, there's no avoiding it. Sometimes when we are a little low we forget that the little "flaws/cracks" can be unique gifts. This being said, I must be an incredibly gifted person and I didn't even know it ;)

You know... when I first signed up here at DG I tried to get my husband to join in as we were doing a tremendous amount of work on the property and I thought he should "educate" himself by interacting with other gardeners. Let me tell you, I'm not at all embarrassed by what I wrote about being "incredibly gifted" but it is times like this when I look at something like what I just typed that I am glad he is not here at this forum. Lord knows I don't need him citing example after example of all my "cracks" er uh I mean "gifts"!

:-D