Heart Hope by Olga

The following is an old story but has a great message.    A water bearer had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and 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 a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water in her master's house. Of course, 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. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you." Why?" asked the bearer. "What ar...

My friend Nancy gave me an amaryllis bulb to plant right after Christmas, so that I would have a beautiful flower for Valentine’s Day. I have grown them in the past and was looking forward to having the beautiful blossom during the winter months to bring some cheer indoors. The bulb was planted according to the instructions, was placed in a sunny spot and was watered faithfully. After just a few days, the green tip began growing. Nancy and I would compare notes on how tall our plant was getting, but I soon noticed that I had nice long green leaves, but nothing was growing in the center of the plant where the flower should be forming. I kept watering and turning it so that it would get plenty of light. I even tried talking to it, but no flower ever formed.  Now I have a pretty plant with green leaves, but if you gaze deep into the plant you know that no matter what kind of care the plant is given there will not be a flower—at least not this year. What prevented the flower from ...