Legend has it: There was a waterbearer in India who had two pots, one hung on each end 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 master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to her master’s house.

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. And after two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, the cracked pot spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream and said: “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 to deliver only half my load because of the crack in my side which causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all 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 her compassion she said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers 🌺  along the path.” And indeed as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot noticed the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path which cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so it apologized again for its failure.

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you not notice that there were flowers 🌺 only on your side of the 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’ve been able to pick these beautiful flowers 🌺 to decorate my master’s table. Without your flaw (you being just the way you are), I would not have had all this beauty in my life and she would not have this beauty to grace her house.” The cracked pot was overjoyed! All it’s sadness was gone. It understood that the very thing he thought to be his flaws turned out to be a blessing for the flowers 🌺 along the path.

The moral of the story: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We are all cracked pots. But it’s the cracks, the quirks, faults and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and the world so interesting and rewarding. We’ve just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. There’s a lot of good out there.

This legend made me think of a saying I once heard: When you look at a field of dandelions, you can either see a hundred weeds or a thousand wishes. And another: I gave you $10, he gave you $20. You felt he was better because he gave more. But he had $200 and all I had was $10. Or my own personal experience with my daughter:  I’ll never forget an adorable little girl named, Amy – four years of age, who brought her mama “wildflowers” one day and her mama said, “oh honey, throw those away, they are weeds!” I’ll never forget it as long as I live. A sweet little girl had picked “flowers” for her mama because she loved her mama and then to be told they were weeds. I still tear up when I think of how I didn’t see the love behind the gesture. I learned a valuable lesson that day, when after seeing her face fall realizing I had missed the opportunity to show my child how to see a thousand wishes, growing flowers on a worn pathway or how sometimes we don’t have much to give but we give all we have.

After reading this my daughter wrote this to me and sent me this photo … “They (flowers) were purple and I thought they were pretty. But even if you tear up from that moment, just know that you passed something good on to me. When my kids hand me weeds, I resist the urge to flinch as they are shoving them into my nostrils to smell. I tell them … oh, they are beautiful and smell great … as I pull pieces of dandelions and Lord knows what else off my face where they were just shoved for me to smell. And I go put them in a little vase that YOU gave me. So all is well that ends well.”

Below: Amy with her daughter and the “flowers” picked special for her by her daughter in the vase I gave her … my flaw turned into a blessing!