flowers by the roadside!

 

Don’t remember where I found this:

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots. Each hung on the ends of a pole that she carried across her neck as she walked to and from her house to gather water at a stream. The one pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. The other pot had a crack in it and arrived only half full at the end of the long walk from stream to house.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half p…ots of water.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. The 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, the cracked pot 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. It’s these cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. We just have to take each person for what he or she is and look for the good in each.

So, to all of my cracked pot friends, remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!