The Cracked Pot

Thanks to Ramesh K G for this amazing article...

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A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and 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 master's house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master's house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?" "I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master's house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts," the pot said.

The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master's house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologized to the bearer for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master's table. Without your being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.

The Moral of this Story: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. 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 s/he is, and look for the good in them.
There is a lot of good out there.

" Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stonesout of his way, but must accept his lot calmly if they even roll a fewmore upon it."

---Albert Schweitzer


Don't waste life in doubts and fears; spend yourself on the workbefore you, well assured that the right performance of this hour'sduties will be the best preparation for the hours and ages that willfollow it.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

My will shall shape the future. Whether I fail or succeed shall be noman's doing but my own. I am the force; I can clear any obstaclebefore me or I can be lost in the maze. My choice; my responsibility;win or lose, only I hold the key to my destiny.

---Elaine Maxwell

No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged childrenfor signs of improvement.

Scott Maxwell

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able toremake the world ... as in being able to remake ourselves.

--Mahatma Gandhi

I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happinessor misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.

---Martha Washington

The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.

----Elain Heffner

Now is the only time. How we relate to it creates the future. In otherwords, if we're going to be more cheerful in the future, it's becauseof our aspiration and exertion to be cheerful in the present. What wedo accumulates; the future is the result of what we do right now.

---Pema Chodron

She was the archetypal selfless mother: living only for her children,sheltering them from the consequences of their actions -- and in theend doing them irreparable harm.

--Marcia Muller


If your heart acquires strength, you will be able to remove blemishesfrom others without thinking evil of them.

---Mohandas K. Gandhi

We are all something, but none of us are everything.

--Blaise Pascal

Take time to accept responsibility. Your life is exactly that - It'syour life. It is created by you. You are constantly making choices,constantly creating new experiences. And although we an be affectedby circumstances which can seem to be completely out of our control.Essentially, we decide the direction in which we walk.

---Nicolas Watkins

To will is to select a goal, determine a course of action that willbring one to that goal, and then hold to that action till the goal isreached. The key is action.

---Michael Hanson

Instead of looking for a miracle in your life,look to see if you are the miracle in someone else's life.

----Nola Rohde Vollmer

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when weare feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it isonly in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likelyto step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways ortruer answers.

---M. Scott Peck


We should be careful and discriminating in all the advice we give. Weshould be especially careful in giving advice that we would not thinkof following ourselves. Most of all, we ought to avoid giving counselwhich we don't follow when it damages those who take us at our word.

----Adlai Stevenson

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles,it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world andexperience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

---Elizabeth Hardwick

The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at atime.

----Abraham Lincoln

Self-trust is the first secret of success.

---Ralph Waldo Emerson

The deepest human defeat suffered by human beings is constituted bythe difference between what one was capable of becoming and what onehas in fact become.

----Ashley Montagu

I've believed ever since that living on the edge, living in and
through your fear, is the summit of life, and that people who refuse
to take that dare condemn themselves to a life of living death.

-John H. Johnson

I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach meanything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.

-Larry King

Try not to become a man of success but a man of value.

-Albert Einstein

Inspirational Positive Thought!!!

"Allow Your Own Inner Light to Guide You"

There comes a time when you must stand alone.

You must feel confident enough within yourself to follow your owndreams.

You must be willing to make sacrifices.

You must be capable of changing and rearranging your priorities sothat your final goal can be achieved.

Sometimes, familiarity and comfort need to be challenged.

There are times when you must take a few extra chances and createyour own realities.

Be strong enough to at least try to make your life better.

Be confident enough that you won't settle for a compromise just to get by.

Appreciate yourself by allowing yourself the opportunities to grow, develop, and find your true sense of purpose in this life.

Don't stand in someone else's shadow when it's your sunlight thatshould lead the way.

I've believed ever since that living on the edge, living in andthrough your fear, is the summit of life, and that people who refuseto take that dare condemn themselves to a life of living death.


-John H. Johnson

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

-George Bernard Shaw

"Growth is not steady, forward, upward progression. It is instead aswitchback trail; three steps forward, two back, one around thebushes, and a few simply standing, before another forward leap."

- Dorothy Corkville Briggs

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person,"Always do what you are afraid to do."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not follow where the path may lead.Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

-Harold R. McAlindon

"Fear does not have any special power unless you empower it bysubmitting to it."

-Les Brown

Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist, but the ability to start over.

----F. Scott Fitzgerald

If you wouldn't write it and sign it, don't say it.

---Earl Wilson

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation,you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled withgratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.

---Rabbi Harold Kushner

With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to becompassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundationof integrity.

---Keshavan Nair

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before whichdifficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

---John Quincy Adams

Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. Difference is thatstrong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, learn from them.That is how they become strong.

---Richard Needham

A goal is not the same as a desire, and this is an importantdistinction to make. You can have a desire you don't intend to acton. But you can't have a goal you don't intend to act on."

---Tom Morris

Often the difference between a successful man and a failureis not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one hasto bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk, and to act.

---Maxwell Maltz