Zen View By: Mary Layton
Sometimes when we question our purpose or abilities, we can think of this story:
As was routine, water would be carried from the river daily in hand fashioned buckets by the small population of a tiny village. One day a bucket after seeing much use, sprung a leak and drops of water would drop from it on the journey home from the river. And although the woman who carried the buckets noticed, she did not replace it. The bucket felt bad for it was not doing the job it was made to do well anymore. And day after day, the woman would fetch water and the bucket would lose some on the journey back. This went on until the bucket could stand no more.
“Why do you keep using me,” the bucket lamented to the woman, “if I have a leak and can not carry all the water you put in me home? I am no longer useful to you. ”
The woman smiled cheerily at her bucket. “Have you not seen the flowers along the path we take every day? They grow where the water has fallen from you. I can not replace something that helps such beauty and joy to flourish.”
