OH! THE CRACKPOTS
Read this *Chinese Wisdom* years ago, and was reminded again today by a Filipino friend’s email.
Once upon a time there was a very old woman who lived in a remote village in China. She use to go to a far off stream to fetch water in her two earthen pots. One of her pots was perfect while the other had a crack in it.
Everyday when she brought water from the stream it would leak from the crack in the second pot and by the time she reached home there were only one and a half pots full of water in them.
She went on with the same routine for years without any change.
The perfect pot felt proud of itself for being flawless.
However the cracked one was ashamed of its imperfection as it could only accomplish half of what it was meant to.
After years of feeling guilty, the cracked pot one day gathered courage and while the old lady was filling it up with water, it begged sorry to the lady mentioning about its flaw and how it betrayed the old woman.
The old lady smiled and said, “I have been aware of your flaw all along, and did you not notice that I had sown the seeds of flowering plants on your side of the path, all through. And when you leaked water on the way, those seeds got irrigated, the plants grew and now there are flowers blooming in them. Thanks to you, my leaky pot.”
And she told the cracked pot how much of ‘fragrance’ and ‘color’ have those beautiful flowers brought in her life.
“If it wasnt for you, there wouldnt be these ‘flowers’ in my life.”
The cracked pot continued to leak , and drenched her as she hugged the sad cracked pot, affectionately.
The cracked pot smiled back, with a deep sigh of relief.
Morals of the Story:
Each of us has our own crack and flaw or even cracks and flaws.
These cracks or flaws make us unique, interesting and rewarding in one way or the other.
We need to accept not only our cracks, but the cracks in others as they are, and find good in them.
And yes…. we must also remember to see and smell the flowers on ‘our’ side of the path.
Always…
Blind to Bounds 
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