I'm Spoilt

I've got some awesome presents this month. I haven't really had time to take it all in before now. Everyone seems to have left town now and I am home and have the house to myself so I have been noticing how spoilt I've been.

My kids gave me a pile of my favourite DVDs as well as aromatherapy treats, new headphones for my much loved and used ipod and a great photo file. My dear brother has delighted me in many ways by giving me a beautifully framed family photo taken at his wedding last year. I treasure it. He has also given me a stack of great music, which is an annual treat from him. I have been enjoying them for the past couple of days. He also got me a grill as my family has a Kris kindle type thing with the grownups. My parents gave me quite a few great gifts, as they always do, it's cause I still believe in Santa and I'm a very good girl, but my favourite is the crisp white sheets. I love white sheets, especially new ones!

This month of December, with my birthday as well I have been literally showered with great presents from all my friends. The kinds of things I really wanted too. The kids at school spoilt me as well on their last days with very generous pressies.

Tonight Andy has surprised me with a belated gift and I am gobsmacked. I love astrology, yet most people in my life don't seem to recognise that. Not sure why that is, anyway he has given me a Jonathon Cainer subscription for the next year and I am over the moon about it.

Fremantle Reflection

Jane lives near Fremantle. After a long sit at Little Creatures and a few of their lovely Pale Ales and lots of delicious food, we went for a stroll along the water. There we are reflected in the McDonalds window.

My first visit to Fremantle was in 1999 when Jane lived about a street away from this part of the world. My kids and I spent two weeks here. The beachfront here has altered. At that time my kids went to the little building on the beach on the right in this photo below and had some art lessons. They loved it.

I didn't recognise the view at first with the big modern building. I vaguely recall being told it was a Museum.

There is a lot of development going on in that part of the world. It's a shame to see the coastline getting built up with housing. I guess for the people who will live there, it will be great.

We drove past Sam's school and it's a great space. It sounds like there are some good people there too. Sam seems really fond of his integration aide and some of his teachers, which is good. I wish he was at my school, but the grounds at the school he attends are awesome.

I visited the Freo Market, mainly to check out the mosaics I remembered from my last visit. I wanted to take photo's, but the sign said 'No Photos', so I chatted to the nice man and he gave me a few tips, which I know will help a lot and a nice postcard with their website: mosaicart, there are some great photos and links to other artists on the site. Nice story too!

I love my time with Jane. This was my fourth trip to WA. I would be happy to just sit at her kitchen table and drink coffee until it was a respectable time to have red or a beer. She is one of the few people I drink with. She is such a creative soul, her home is always beautiful and interesting and I always enjoy seeing the magic she creates in her space. We have been friends for such a long time and know each others history. It is very comfortable.

My Christmas 2007

I had a splendid day. I was tired from my trip. My beautifully cleaned home soon turned into a turbulent chaos of unpacking from the trip, gift wrapping and unwrapping. My kids were in and out all day. Their dad is walking distance from my house so we met up a few times during the day's activities. I have lots of great new possessions and have been showered with the love and generosity of my family and friends.

I enjoyed a great afternoon with my mum's family yesterday. I was the only niece/nephew at the extended family Christmas feast and I felt very special there too! Kind of funny to be the only child at 42. It was a more intimate meal that we are used to due to so many family members being away this year, yet I really enjoyed it more to be honest. Mum is one of eight children, so add spouses and offspring to that number and you can imagine how large it can get. We had real conversations with everyone included. We laughed heaps, shared news and had a scrumptious meal.

I remembered those who aren't with me but still firmly alive in my heart with love and gratitude. I communicated with absent loved ones via email or phone call at some stage of the day and felt peace and goodwill to all as I snuggled into bed last night. A perfect Christmas.

My 42nd Birthday

I'm 42!

I had a great birthday. I've been in contact with the people I love and received visits, phonecalls, emails, gifts and comments from lots of great people wishing me a happy birthday.

I enjoyed my day out for brunch with my friend Rhonda, who is born the same day as me. It was good. I went for a swim in the afternoon and then my parents visiting, bringing dinner this evening.

I feel tired and grateful for my day and my life.

Namowrimo Abandoned for Beach

I concede defeat. If you look at my stats, there is very little hope for me. Last year I predicted my inability to do it and didn't try, this year I am quite willingly surrendering. It must have been beginners luck the first year and I feel doubly successful in my original effort now that I appreciate what it must have taken. I take my hat off to all those who are soldiering on with it and will now be a supporter from the sidelines.

My weekend went in directions I didn't expect. I was too leisurely on Saturday, although thank goodness I did clean my house! Often I put that off till Sunday as well. I enjoyed it all very much though and feel no regret for the price I have paid.

On Sunday after his work, my son suggested we get out of the house and go to the beach. So we did. He brought a couple of friends and Rhonda called and decided to join us. We took our work with us, study, unfinished essays, corrections were all packed up and away we went. Driving there, about an hour away from home, the sky was dark and rain spits were disheartening on the windscreen. Rhonda in her car was thinking I was mad.

We arrived at the beach, whilst most were packing up to leave we enjoyed a couple of hours of swimming and lying in the gentle afternoon sun. It had been hot and muggy at home, yet was clear and still warm on the sand. The sea was refreshing and I enjoyed playing in the chilly waves. We then went into town and the six of us ordered a variety of yummy food and sat out on the street table and satisfied our after swimming appetites, tasting all the variety and laughing a lot. The sun was setting as we drove home and the world was beautiful. As we came through the hills the air smelt of eucalyptus's and the thunder storm we could see ahead.

It did my spirit good. I'll write the novel another day. Now I need to get moving for the busiest time of my year. Corrections, report-writing, Christmas shopping and mega birthdays (including my own!) all loom in the next month. This time next month I will be in WA with Jane, so I need to be effective in my actions and letting go of NaNoWriMo is the first step.

'Lies', 'Once' and personal clips

Last night I went to see 'Once', I have reviewed it on 'Falling Brick'.
This is a track from the film called 'Lies'.
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This YouTube clip is a scene from the film that particularly touched me. On IMDb I read about the film, it mentioned in the trivia the clip was of the director, John Carney's real girlfriend. This added to the appeal of the film for me. It was a very real and amazing film.

I love to make clips for people I love. I have just finished making one and sent it to Andy in Tasmania. I want to edit it already! Little snippets of our time together through my eyes. He probably hasn't even seen it yet. Lucky he never reads my blog - would blow the surprise.

Last Christmas I made one for Jane and we added a Christmas message to the end of the collage. She lives interstate, so it was fun to do. I love that too. I made one for my Pa's funeral that is particularly special to me. I have promised family members to distribute it to them. I must do that soon.

I started off making them for my homeroom class and giving a copy to each child as a gift for the end of the year. A couple of my year 9s have told me they still watch them and treasure the one I made for them in year 7. They are just really collages of photos and small videos taken with a still camera. The limitation of 30 seconds that my digital camera has, makes for easy editing. I then edit them in Microsoft Movie Maker. As I said, it is a very simple and inexpensive way to give a meaningful gift. Microsoft also have a program called Photo Story, if you only have photos.

This year at school, my digital storytelling class is making a clip for each homeroom. They are doing a great job. Some of them are using Flash and I am getting them to teach me about it as I haven't used it before.

My Truth about Beauty

Your beauty takes nothing away from mine! There is space in the world for each of us to be beautiful. Our uniqueness, rarity and individuality makes each of us gorgeous. When we try to subscribe to the media's notions of beauty is when it all get's ugly. I love the Dove commercials. Especially this one:


It is sad to see people in competitions about beauty. These range from the school yard quasi popularity contests to the pageants and contests held all over the world to determine beauty. We all know these kinds of things are fleeting, in the eye of the beholder and irrelevant to the real things in life. Most of us are aware of the forces that come into play when these contests occur. Look at the movies about them:

"Little Miss Sunshine", "Beautiful", ,"Miss Congeniality" ,"Drop Dead Gorgeous" are films giving some insight into the ugliness of the beauty competition. It's all wrong!

I remember when my daughter was a baby, one of my most embarrassing memories was putting her in a baby photography competition. I knew she would win because she was divine. She was absolutely gorgeous. My best friend Jane, whom I dragged along with me, begged me not to do it. She sanely pleaded that it was a stupid idea. I couldn't see the harm. I'm not sure what it was I wanted to prove to the world (and a small world it was). Strangely my daughter did not win. I was shocked, as was every other parent in the room whose child didn't win. We all know our children are amazing and beautiful and the truth is they are. I didn't make that same mistake with my second child.

I have been showing my students the evolution clip this week and discussing with all classes the impact of what we see in the media about our gender, beauty and sexuality. It's been interesting and has been inspired from the great talk I heard on Monday by Anthea Paul. I have purchased 'girlosophy' and have loved what I have read so far. It is visually stunning.

Big Day Out and holiday stuff....

Tonight I am feeling so very tired. I have to stay up or wake up to attempt to get 'Big Day Out' tickets for my son. We have a little Christmas traditional at stake here. The event has sold out in Sydney, so I need to be on it. 12.01am - is the time the tickets go on sale. Blah!

I booked some flights for my holidays last night. I'm going West to stay with Jane as soon as school closes. Well actually the next day! I'm excited. We've planned a road trip across the Nullabor, so it should be a great adventure.

My friends have been awesome lately. They are always great but I appreciate the way they have stayed in touch and showed a lot of care for me. I have been missing Andy plenty, yet can't complain because he's stayed in touch too.

So tonight, I'll be watching mega episodes of 'Gilmour Girls' and keeping up for the beginning of my Christmas shopping. Blah, it's too early really to even think about that frenzy.

BTW, Jaycee asked about gifts for teachers in a comment last month and I noticed this great post today on one of my favourite blogs Zen Habits:30 Frugal Gift Ideas to Show you appreciate Someone. I looked over the list and rather than reinvent the wheel, I reckon there's some great things listed there. Especially the homemade food stuff. I've had a few students over the years bring in homemade food for me. I've loved it every time and Christmas being what it is with extra visitors and celebrations, there's always room for extra food!

Facebook

I have spent a little time on Facebook these holidays and have added some old friends as well as a couple of new ones. It's great to find people I know and after the discussion I had earlier in the week, think I might use these tools to stay in touch with friends as the younger lot are.

When you are in your 40s though, many of your friends are not on Facebook, or any other social networks that I can find. Yesterday I called an old friend who I haven't seen for around 4 years. I have a small pile of his stuff that I have uncovered in this cleaning frenzy I've been in. I am dropping it off to him today whilst I am in Melbourne. I have attempted to find him on Facebook. Somehow I had lost his details. Possibly a dysfunctional mobile phone that I'd been using at the time. Fortunately I found a piece of paper with his details on it. The whole experience made me realise how easy it is to lose track of friends. We all have busy lives.

Facebook has had some negative press, as have many other social networking sites. It all comes back to the individual user though really. If you are in it to get the largest number of friends or making all your details open to the public, you could encounter an invasion of privacy. I would argue it is one that you have invited.

Staying In Touch

I was chatting to my son's friend Brigitte on the way to the deb the other night. She is completing her VCE in a town that is over 3 hours away from here. She moved when she was in year 8. They (son and friend) caught up online. They weren't close friends when she lived here. She is a year older than he. They reconnected on My Space and are very close friends now. Brig stays here for weekends and he has been to her new place for weekends as well. Her extended family lives here still.
I chatting with Brig about staying in contact with people when she finishes school. I remembered when I finished HSC (as it was known, back in the day) that I lost touch with mobs of people that I had seen every day at school for around 12 years. It was weird. They weren't close friends, but I liked many of the kids and never really saw most of them again. I told her to appreciate all those acquaintance-type people.
Living in a country town, many people move away when they finish school. When I caught up with lots of them at our 20 year school reunion, they were mostly the same as they were at school. It was fun.
Anyway Brig and I were wondering if kids today will stay in touch better with MSN and the Internet. She is going to be an experiment for me and let me know if it happens.

MSN & Joanna Newsom

Years ago (probably 10) I had MSN and I used it occasionally. I found it a little invasive to be honest. The way it would pop up whenever I logged on to the Internet was kind of annoying. My kids used it a lot, so I stopped altogether and when I got my own laptop, I didn't put it on. It was kind of part of the freedom of having my own computer.
I have re-installed it this week. It's changed. It's great!
Finally now I have friends and people I know on MSN that I can chat to with it. I like that. I am not that much into chatting to random people.

I am loving Joanna Newsom this week. Especially this song:

Weekend ends with Deb Practise

Tom is partnering a girl at the school's deb ball on Friday night. The parents had to go to deb practise to learn the dance they do with their parent. It's a long time since I did my deb, so I was glad to have an opportunity to refresh the steps.

I stood at the back of the hall watching all these grown up teens. I had a bunch of them in year 7. They are great kids and have grown up well. It's quite amazing the change since they were at our campus 3 years ago.

I loved having Jane on Friday night. I was delighted that her daughter Ricki was there too. I haven't spent time with Ricki like that for ages. She is a great young woman. Yesterday we went for a walk and Sam is walking so well he pushed Tom in the wheelchair for a little while. It was quite amusing. I was sad to see them go.

Waiting for Jane

And Sam of course. My friend Jane lives in WA and she has been on a holiday to Jindabyne and is passing through tonight on her way to Melbourne. I am so excited to see her. I have even tidied my house!

Normally at this time of the term - one week to go - I am too tired to lift a finger. I need my friends to visit more often so I have my home how I like it.

I've brought my beautiful tulips home from work. Unfortunately two blossoms blew off in the wind on the way to the car but hey!

I like this New Moon!

Today has been great for me! It's a good start to the lunar month I must say.
I have received another gorgeous, hand picked from the garden, bunch of tulips. They are multi-coloured and absolutely lovely. This time the student was brave enough to bring them to the office for me himself and coped very well with all the extra attention he got for being so thoughtful.
Two tulips have bloomed in my own little Andy planted patch.
My best friend Rhonda has brought in piles of chocolates every day because her son sent her a large box. He's working in a chocolate factory.
Tonight I had my monthly massage and I was intending making it every 6 weeks to save money. It was so divine, I spontaneously booked another for 4 weeks from today! Surely there is something else I could go without :-)

'Tales of the Otori' by Lian Hearn

I forgot to name my good friend Carmel, when I was mentioning friends I was grateful for. She was lumped in with my work mates. She has leant me book 4 of the 'Tales of the Otori' series, 'The Harsh Cry of the Heron'. Carmel was my daughter's homeroom teacher when she started at secondary school and a real role model for her. When I started at the school I work at we soon became good friends. She'd come highly recommended.
Tales of the Otori
I have thoroughly enjoyed the entire series I've loaned from Carmel so far.
'Across the Nightingale Floor', 'Grass for His Pillow' and 'Brilliance of the Moon' were all wonderful and I look forward to reading this latest one. There is a new book 'Heavens Net is Wide' that goes back to the start. I will savour these ending and beginning books as I did Harry Potter.
Lian Hearn
Lian Hearn lives in Australia, yet these books are based in Japan. She weaves the landscape and mythology well and I learnt a lot from these books that helped me to understand Feudal Japan.
My Book Pile Right Now....
I have a delicious pile of books I'm currently reading in addition to 'The Harsh Cry of the Heron'. I have James Moloney's 'Master of the Books' and it every bit as engrossing as 'The Book of Lies'. I have Maureen McCarthy's 'Rose By Any Other Name' and I'm looking forward to that also. I have 7 other books in addition. Two of these I have began, yet put aside for these more compelling books. I may or may not get back to them!

Lost and Found Women

While I was cooking dinner this evening, the phone rang. I nearly didn't answer it, expecting a telemarketer! I couldn't resist. It was my long lost friend Ronece. I was speechless with delight, for about two seconds. We have just enjoyed a long chat on the phone, catching up on over 5 years that we haven't been in touch. Our children have grown, my career has changed, I live in a different town, but we picked up as though it were back in the day when we chatted at least every other day.
Great Women Friends
When I got off the phone, I was on it for a couple of hours, I reflected on how blessed I have been to have such awesome women friends. I don't really mention them on my blog much because I feel it would be invading their privacy somehow. I want to mention them tonight though because I appreciate them all.
Old Friends
Some have been around for a long time, like Jane who I met when we were 6 years old. Wilma has been around for a long while also. I met her in my first year at Monash Gippsland. Neither of us finished our degrees at that time, but we did go on to have a business or two together in soft furnishings and we're still in touch. She introduced me to Dallis and Shirley and many other great friends.
New Friends
Rhonda is like a twin soul. We were born on the same day, yet a year apart. We have the same middle name! We work together and see each other every day. It's such fun! She is currently injured and at home for the week, but I will be popping in to see her each day. She was such a treasure to me over the past hard weeks with the flu and the loss of pa. We share our daily ups and downs and amazingly are often feeling exactly the same way about all kinds of things.
Work Friends
Having had over 20 jobs since I left school, I have enjoyed some great friendships with people I've worked with Maureen, Jenny, Sonia and Wilma have been fabulous mentors as well as friends. I catch up with them all, although not as often as before and enjoy their company. I have learnt so much from each of them. I currently have a great bunch of women I work with. Too many to name! It's another thing I really value about my job.
Great Friends I rarely see
I was so close with Rene when I lived in Harkaway. She is a beautiful and amazing woman who brought such a delicious presence to my life. We had great times and excursions with our kids and her large and wonderful family provided a haven for me when I was missing mine.
I had a great road trip with Lisa to Queensland and her gentle and generous nature tolerated me through the journey.
Lost Friends but not forgotten Friends
I learnt heaps from Bronwyn and she supported me through some painful growth times in my life.
I had some great friends at school. Kim was one I have never caught up with again, but would love to hear from. We had some times together!

Thanks And Sorry
Writing a post like this worries me as there are probably people I am leaving out. Sorry if I have. I feel immensely blessed by the all the great women I've had and have as friends. Bronwyn once said to me that your friends are your family of choice. I liked that and am happy with my choices.
I also have a lot of great male friends, but tonight it's about the girls.

Last Man Standing

To Quit...
I am reflecting today on quitting smoking. This is going to be a long post. I have made a commitment to myself to get hypnotised. I have to write a list of reasons why I want to quit. The counsellor knows it isn't worthwhile unless I really want to. I really do want to. I have chosen hypnosis because I want to do this calmly and mindfully. I intend it to be an exercise in self-improvement, rather than a ugly and uncomfortable withdrawal from addiction.

Past attempts
I am scared I am going to fail at it again. I have tried a number of times before. I thought I would write this reflection on my blog post to add some leverage to my intention. There is nothing quite like telling the world you are going to do something for making you follow through. I have tried patches, gum, hypnosis, cold turkey, zyban and nicotine lozenges. Hypnosis was the least damaging and most empowering, so I am going with that again.

Freedom from Addiction
I intensely dislike being unable to choose. I hate the panic I feel when I am running out of cigarettes. I am not in control of my own behaviour and this has health, social, financial and time consequences. I remember a doctor once said to me " I don't know how you find the time!" and I was furious about that. I see myself as a really busy person who gets a lot done. Yet when I have quit in the past, I have so much extra time and accomplish so much more.

Social Smoker

I feel like the last man standing as far as smoking goes. It used to be a great social event to go outside for a smoke. All the best people were out there and there was always laughter and wickedness that I enjoyed. Now it feels like the best people have quit and I am left with the people who don't really care....about themselves. A harsh thing to say as a couple of my best friends in the whole world are still smoking with me, but I want them to stop too. I am not a social smoker though. I am totally addicted and smoke in any circumstance.

Fear of Death
My Auntie died this week. She was a smoker and she had a lot of cancer. She was only in her fifties. That's young, particularly when you are in your forties. I am no longer prepared to race towards premature death. Other family members who were smokers have also died.

Love
I don't want to set a bad example to my kids or to the kids I teach. I love them and I want to demonstrate living healthy to them. I know it hurts my parents, kids and loved ones to see me smoke. They are scared for me and I can relate to that when I see people I love take risks with their wellbeing. It's not fair. My relationships suffer from this habit.

Health
I enjoy being healthy. I like having circulation in my feet and hands. I like to breath easily when I exercise, or even when I wake up. I want to stop snoring and having sinus pain.

Taste and Smell
I know from my previous quitting times how much better the world can taste and smell.

Time and Money
I want that time and money for more exciting, adventurous and positive things like home improvements, travelling and learning.

Why
I can think of lots of reasons why I smoke. Most of them are historical and have been eclipsed by the addiction. I started smoking when I was young and rebellious and all my friends smoked. Most of the adult women I admired were smokers. I wanted to be like them all. I continued smoking because nobody could tell me what to do. I wanted to be a rebel. I didn't care, I wasn't afraid, it was the least of my bad habits (or so I thought) at times. I thought I was invincible. I was angry and it helped. I wanted a treat - a coffee and a smoke. I didn't want to put on weight by eating a treat instead of having a smoke. I know most of those reasons are redundant or ignorant now. I am just addicted.

How
I think how is always more important than why. I have learnt a lot from my last experiences. I know I can not have another smoke if I am going to give up, so I am going to rid my home of all butts and buts. I am going to listen to the hypnosis tape each morning whilst I exercise and at night before I sleep. I am going to quit on the last day of school so I have a two week head start before I have to say no to going outside with my smoking buddies at school. I am going to start a room painting project to give me something valuable to do with my time. I am going to take extra vitamin B and eat healthy fresh food. I am booking a massage for myself as my treat and will reward myself with a handbag I have been wanting to buy at the end of the holidays. I know I will have the support of my family and friends. This week I am going to make a treasure map of the lifestyle I want to live when I am free of this addiction. I am letting go of something that no longer serves me and I am ready.
I have read the book Allen Carrs Easy Stop Smoking
I will use the following web pages to support me also:
Natural Therapy
QuitNow - National Tobacco Campaign
Quit Vitoria
Wish me luck.

Do you like the new look?

Let's get the shoulds out of the way.
Yes, I should be correcting so I can have my reports done on time. They are due Friday and it's a long weekend here. Queen's Birthday weekend is always really meant to be correct and write reports weekend. I usually don't though. I have a really tidy home.

Heating
It's warm too cause I have just upgrading from the wood fire heating to a reverse cycle air conditioner. It's lovely to breath without creating a fog inside. It's awesome to flick a switch and not have to bring heavy loads of wood in and then spend the time it takes getting the fire to start. I don't miss the fire at all, but if ever I do, it's still there in the corner.

Flitting around the Internet
So I have updated the template of my blog, thanks to joining Bumpzee and receiving a lovely visitor to my site from snokky who has Life in the Country and a wonderful template that I decided I could do with. I haven't finished the renovations yet, a bit like my house! I am searching my backups for this particular photo to put on the header.

Social Networking
Bumpzee is a social networking site and I have realised lately that I haven't been participating very much in any online communities. I thought I'd see what it was like before I outright reject it and go back to the solitude I like. So here's to a new online experiment for me.

UFO's

A morning spent reading on the Internet has been a little journey into the past for me today, riddled with co-incidences and revelations. I read my weekly 'Mystic Medusa' horoscope and her latest blog post:Bibliomancy: Tekhne led me to a link to review of a book she is reading about metaphysics, history and myth, some of my favourite subjects. The John E Mack Institute website however, was the real find for me.
Without wanting to reveal too much of my flakey past, I did a 'spiritual' course once and met John E Mack. He was one of the participants. My friend Shirley and I and around 20 others had this adventure that was so shoddy. Shirley and I discussed it last time we caught up and she asked whether I'd heard anything about John, as she really liked him. I thought he had died and today, that was confirmed on that website. He was a very interesting, humble and gentle man. When he listened to you, you really felt heard and Shirley was especially touched by his ability to listen and hear.
He died 3 years ago in an accident.
He was quite sick on that course and that was one of the objections I had about the course. They wouldn't allow him to deal with his health issues and I felt that was crazy and almost cruel as I could see he was in pain and I felt almost in collusion by being there and watching them deny him care. It was a very unpleasant experience for me. I ended up being totally outraged and basically throwing a tantrum, which was then put down to a flaw in my spirit. Still, on reflection, I learnt lots from that course about myself and about deferring to others. I had perhaps lost touch with myself and that was what it took to make me realise who I was.
Earlier this week in class (although I was hardly there, I did have a couple of lessons), a student asked me whether I believed in UFO's. John came into my mind. I told the kids what he'd told me about his research and that although I had no evidence, I trusted his and I personally do believe.

Crackpots Unite

Today I received one of those email stories and I loved it. It went well with Tuesday's excursion. It came with a disclaimer that the person wasn't sure if it was really a Chinese story or a woman for that matter, which also made me smile. I felt a bit like that leaky container today :

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends 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 house, the cracked pot arrived
only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman
bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course,
the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made
to do.
After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to
the woman one day by the stream.
"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?"
"That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day
while we walk back, you water them."
"For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You just have to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them. So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!