Friday, May 12, 2006
The Missing Piece
This is a fairy tale for adults. It tells the story of a circle that was missing a piece. A large triangular wedge had been cut out of it.
The circle wanted to be whole with nothing missing, so it went around looking for it's missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could only roll very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and continued searching.
Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It was incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or talk to the worms.
When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly by, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.
Moral of the story
In some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted and never had.
There is a wholeness about the person who has to come to terms with his own limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person. You have been through the worst and come through intact.
Life like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-third of the games and even the worst has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose.
When we accept that imperfection is part of human being, and that we can continue rolling through life and appreciating it, we will achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to.
And at the end, if we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.
XOXOXOXOXOXO
by anonymous
are you my missing piece? am i better off without you? *sigh* i just wish i knew the answers...anyway, thanks for keeping me sane...
a.o.u.i.e. scribbled this @ 11:27 PM
2 Comments
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said @ 5/19/2006 6:10 PM
can't help but agree with this... indeed one becomes more perceptive and appreciative when one is suffering.
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said @ 5/22/2006 5:21 PM
i love that book...
- noringai
