In India, a waterman used to carry water with two large buckets, which he attached to the ends of a long stick that he hung around his neck. One of the buckets is cracked. While the solid bucket completed the long road from the river to the boss’s house full each time, the cracked bucket could only reach half of the water put into it. This situation continued every day for two years. The waterman could only bring 1.5 buckets of water to his boss’s house at a time. While the solid bucket was proud of its success, the poor cracked bucket was ashamed of only doing half of its task. One day, after two years, the cracked bucket called to the waterman on the bank of the river.
“I am ashamed of myself and want to apologize to you.”
“Why is that?” she asked. “Why are you ashamed?” Aquarius answered.
“Because water has been leaking from my crack for two years, I can only do half of my transport duty. Because of my fault, you can’t get the full reward for your efforts even though you work so hard.” The waterman said:
“I want you to notice the flowers on the side of the road on your way back to the boss’s house.” Indeed, as he climbed the hill, the cracked bucket saw the sun warming the wildflowers on one side of the path. But at the end of the road, he felt bad because he lost half of his water again and apologized to the waterman again. The waterman asked the bucket:
“Did you notice that there are only flowers on your side of the path and no flowers on the other side of the bucket? This is because I know your fault and take advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the road and you watered them each day as we came back from the river. For two years I have been able to collect these beautiful flowers and decorate my boss’s table with them. If you weren’t like that, he wouldn’t be able to experience these beauties in his house.”
We all have our own flaws. We’re all actually crack buckets. Don’t be afraid of your flaws. Own them. If you know that you find your true strength in your flaws, you can cause beauty too.
