TWO POTS

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 walks 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 two 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’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

Welcome to Living Above The Madness

Reblogged from Living Above The Madness:

Click to visit the original post

What would you do if you found out you were mad? Oh that’s sounds a bit dramatic perhaps, but think about it a moment… What would you do as a 23-year old, who had just had a baby boy nine months earlier, who had a fine husband, and you land in the loony bin? One moment you have a budding career, an apartment, okay your husband is leaving you, a wonderful sweet son.

Read more… 410 more words

A post from a very dear friend of mine

As I see it… a missive about the economic mess we are in

What happens when the money runs out? our federal government has been spending money at unsustainable pace for decades now.
now one can say “that’s ok, we will just tax the rich; they dont pay their fair share!” I really cannot speak to that except that the rich(whoever they are) can provide themselves with enough shelters and tax lawyers and lobbyist to keep what they have. We cannot tax the poor because frankly they are not tax producers but rather tax consumers (beneficiaries of tax entitlement programs). So that leaves the poor middle class to shore up revenues by raising the rates and remove the few tax benefits left to them.

The trouble is that while the Middle class has the means to bear the tax burden (for now). they are the consumers of goods and services that the economic engine desperately requires to keep running and its base is shrinking because the “income” the governments( Federal, state and localities) increases, and is redistributed to programs for entitlements and to keep the governments running which is fine if their growth was static but its not the case.government spending budget keep increasing and needs to be funded.

Government might increase the sales tax or impose new fees (a tax without calling it a tax) which takes more out of an individual middle class family budget which reduces the amount of discretionary income that t a family might spend for consumption which will amount the amount of growth of consumption which the economic engine need to keep growing. since the engine that requires ever increasing sales to keep growing. it start to sputter when there is less of the fuel it need. companies that sell goods consider the possibility and shrink the workforce accordingly. Those people lose their jobs, they have no income and not only do they stop being income producers but might require those them to become an income consumer and the cycle starts into a cycle.
The point is that government must have the ability to shrink and grow in terms of way the economic engine grows and shrinks; right now it cannot because of rules law and entitlements. The best it can do is grow or cut spending and decrease or increase taxes. it can also drop people from the entitlements but it is painful and collectively, governments are reluctant to do so; especially in election cycles. I think we see this all too well in current events. We have unsustainable government growth and a shrink revenue base and a government unable or unwilling to do much about it.

I really doubt that anybody has read the post to this point and I think that it largely the problem. We all know something is wrong but all we collectively do is “kick the can down the road” and do what we can in the short term, blame the other side and ignore the long term problems with the appearance we are doing something.

Dogs.

This re post is shared is from Connie Adams; a very good friend of mine who lost her friend and companion Larry not so long ago. He was so much a part of her life that I felt I knew him over the years as Connie posted his exploits and adventures. I grieved at his passing partially because I knew how much she would and does miss him. I think I grieved for him because of sentiments articulated in this post.

Tina fey and GOP women

Snarky, but okay…Everyone is entitled to their opinion and obviously some people can trade on their celebrity to make a political point and Ms. Fey is certainly not shy when it comes to that.
I did say that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Whether she is correct or incorrect remains to be seen but I also have an opinion which of course doesn’t rely on crafted perception that conservative women are somehow universal mean spirited or stupid or backward.
I think they might be misguided in some ways but should never be underestimate or diminished. There are people who believe in the worship of trees and mother earth and nature as the divine which might be also contrary to the tenants of evolution, but generally given quarter well those who believe in creationism are generally dismissed as root in the past. Where is that liberal tolerance? or the belief that all beliefs should be tolerated of course I might be considered snarky too… Forgive me.

Social Media Lesson I have learned (so far)

I have learned a great deal about social media with this twitter experiment; the primary lesson is that it really isn’t social or media

Social Media lesson #2 is that it pretty much is self serving… an inexpensive way to garner attention and recognition

social media lesson #3..it breaks down to this; these are not friendships or not even networking opportunities they are merely ghosts

Social Media lesson #4, there is far more noise now then there is information; that the only real prompt to move forward is to network IRL

Social Media Lesson #5.. With the advent of klout and ocial media ROI tool. youre placed on a treadmill work or your roadkill.

Social Media #6 We have met the enemy and he is us (apologies to Pogo)

Social media #7.. it will take a long time for Social Media to truly become useful; unless you are writing books on the subject

Social Media #8, If you’re anti social…. you probably shouldn’t try to work within social media

 

Heard this today…

The difference between a dream and reality is just doing it.

So simple but it so true. I have always felt action speaking louder than words, louder than aspirations. We must be doers because potential is a wonderful thing but when you fail to realize that potential … you squander a precious resource and it such a waste!

 

The Wolves inside

An old Cherokee told his grandson, “My son, there’s a battle between two wolves inside us all. One is Evil. It’s anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, inferiority, lies, ego. The other is Good. It’s joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, truth.” The grandson thought about it and asks his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?” The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

Intro to chapter 10, “Positivity”, by Barbara Fredrickson