The Legend of the Flawed Pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots. Each hung on the ends of a wooden pole which she carried each morning across her shoulders to retrieve water from a stream. One of the pots was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water to the old woman's kitchen. The other pot was cracked and at the end of the long walk from the stream to the kitchen, it arrived only half full.

Day after day the woman filled the pots to overflowing with water at the stream, yet arrived home with only one and one half pots of water. The perfect pot was very proud of its accomplishments. The poor cracked pot was very ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it could only do only half the work it was created to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the woman. As she knelt by the stream, the cracked pot said, "I am ashamed of myself, because the crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. I am a failure."

The old woman smiled at the flawed pot. "Haven't you noticed that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other side? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path. Every day as I walk from the stream to the house, you water them for me. For two years now I have been able to pick beautiful flowers to decorate my table. If you had not possessed the flaw you so despise, the beauty of the flowers would not grace my home. I gladly accept you as you are."

Appreciate the flowers on your side of the path and realize your irreplaceable beauty in the garden we create together!