The Teacup

A couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little street and saw a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful teacup in the window. The lady collected teacups and she wanted this one for her collection, so she went inside to buy the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup spoke and said:
"I want you to know that I have not always looked like this. It took the process of pain to bring me to this point. You see, there was a time when I was just clay and the Master came and he pounded me and he squeezed me and he kneaded me and I screamed: "STOP THAT!". But he just smiled and said, "Not yet".
Then he took me and put me on the shelf and I went round and round and round and round... and while I was spinning and getting dizzier and dizzier I screamed again and I said, "Please get me off this thing... please get me off!!!" And the Master was looking at me and he was smiling, as he said, "Not yet".
Then he took me and walked toward the oven and shut the door and turned up the heat and I could see him through the window of the oven and it was getting hotter and hotter and I thought, "He's going to burn me to death!".
And I started pounding on the inside of the oven and I said, "Master, let me out, let me out, let me out!", and I could see that he was smiling as he said "Not yet". Then he opened the door and I was fresh and free and he took me out of the oven and he put me on the table and then he got some paint and a paintbrush.
He started dabbing me and making swirls all over me and I started to gag and I said: "Master, stop it... stop it... stop it please... you're making me gag". He just smiled as he said "not yet".
Then very gently he picked me up again and he started walking toward the oven and I said, "Master, NO!! Not again, pleeeease!!". He opened the oven door and he slipped me inside and he shut the door and this time he turned the heat up twice as hot as before and I thought, "He's going to kill me!!", and I looked through the window of the oven and I started to pound on it, saying, "Master... Master, please let me out... please let me out... let me out!".
I could see that he was smiling but I also noticed a tear trickle down his cheek as I watched him mouth the words, "Not yet!"
Just as I thought I was about to die, the door opened and he reached in ever so gently and took me out, fresh and free and he went and placed me on a high shelf and he said: "There, I have created what I intended. Would you like to see yourself?" I said, "Yes". He handed me a mirror and I looked and I looked again and I said, "That's not me, I'm just a lump of clay".
He said, "Yes, that IS you, but it took the process of pain to bring you to this place. You see, had I not worked you when you were clay, then you would have dried up.
If I had not subjected you to the stress of the wheel you would have crumbled. If I had not put you into the heat of the oven you would have cracked. If I had not painted you there would be no color in your life. But, it was the second oven that gave you the strength to endure. Now you are everything I intended you to be - from the beginning." And I, the teacup, heard myself saying something I never thought I would hear myself saying, "Master, forgive me, I did not trust you. I thought you were going to harm me, I did not know you had a glorious future and a hope for me. I was too shortsighted, but I want to thank you.

I want to thank you for the suffering. I want to thank you for the process of pain. Here I am! I give you myself - fill me; pour from me, use me as you see fit. I really want to be a vessel that brings you glory within my life."

Sunbeam and Sun

Sunbeam was a pretty and gentle girl. She didn’t have a luxurious rare beauty. Her beauty was simple and dear. Many boys paid attention to her: Sun was strong and warm, Wind was haughty and stubborn, Moon was sweet and gracious … All of them wished to own to Sunbeam. So they showed their sentiment in their own way.
Strong warm Sun always covered up for Sunbeam and bring to her unforeseen interesting things, such as taking walks along stream, on hill side, in the forest filling with flowers and their flavour … Being beside Sun, Sunbeam always enjoyed life and find its meaning.
Moon gave Sunbeam pleasant and comfortable feeling. Being beside Moon, she could confide in him and drop her worry and sadness. Moon helped Sunbeam to look herself and remember what she had spent.
How about haughty Wind? Sometimes he was very gentle and pleasant. But sometimes he was also very glacial and haughty. Therefore, Sunbeam was afraid that Wind never belonged to only her.
The life always moved and directed towards ahead. Sunbeam chose Sun for her. With Moon, she only could consider him as a good friend. With Wind, that’s an admiration, strangeness, attraction, charm, and even love. But Sunbeam didn’t choose Wind. Simply because Wind was too haughty.
Now Sunbeam is always beside Sun. Sometimes, Moon meets that couple in the sunsets. And Wind? He still wanders indefinitely during days and nights.

The love story of sea

Where was the sea created from? Human said that the sea was present as the same time with the earth. While the science proved that the sea was present thousands of years ago. We, persons love romance, will discover the sea from story of small snail kept soul of the sea. This story told that …
Once upon a time the earth hadn’t had got blue sea yet. Only the God of Love administered the world. The God gave everybody’s soul the most precious thing – that’s a pearl of love. When human drop the pearl, it would break to hundreds and thousands of pieces and every piece changed into a tear-drop which contained flavour of pain. They didn’t disappear but were kept by the God of Love for making other pearls. Sea was born from there.
Formerly the sea was alone, the more human was pained from love, the more sea was immense and lonely. At that time in the ground where was full of footprints of love, there was a small and lonely snail. This poor snail fumbled but didn’t find out the way, so it only knew to hide itself in the shell. The God of Love didn’t have pearls for it so he brought it to the sea. The sea was very blue from that time not because of the God’s miracle, just because it was not alone. Day after day small snail was besides and listened the singing of sea.
In a sad night, sea told small snail that it didn’t have anything for itself. Human’s tears and loves made up sea but sea didn’t have love. Sea only had its singing and soul. But that singing was just listened in some moment and then was forgotten. And sea depended on wind for keeping the soul, but wind was absorbed in pleasure so the soul of sea was drop somewhere. That’s why sea felt its life was really meaningless.
Small snail loved sea very much after hearing the story of sea. And on a day sea called and called but small snail didn’t reply. The God of Love said that it went away. Sea was at fault, everyday sea waves came and went as waiting for something. Sea was very sad but subsided step by step.
This story maybe would disappear to nothingness or break like sponges if there was one day. One day, in a place very far from the sea, a girl picked up a lonely shell. She pressed her ear against the shell by chance, and she heard passionate sounds from the shell. “Why there is the singing of sea in this shell?”, the girl met The God of Love and asked him curiously. He told her the story of small snail. At that moment small snail entreated him for sea kept its singing. But he said that was not able to, unless … So small snail gave up its soul in order to keep the soul of sea. It must go far away, and sea never knew its story forever. Small snail cried much, its tear couldn’t return to sea too but it knew the sea had soul and it also would have love.
This story still tells that a small snail continue keeping the soul of sea in thousands of years.

The Story of A Glass and Water

A glass says:
- I’m so lonely, I need water, please give me some water.
The owner of glass asks:
- Ok. I give you some water and then you will not be lonely any longer, will you?
The glass replies:
- Sure, sir.
The owner brings water to the glass and pour some into it. Water is very hot. The glass feels soft and panic-stricken. It beleives that it is nearing melting. It thinks this is surely a power of love. A little later, water is only warm. The glass feels very comfortable. It thinks this is a taste of life. Water begins to be cool. The glass feels scared. It doesn’t know what it is scared. It thinks this is an aftertaste of loss. Water is cold. The glass is hopeless. It thinks this is a disposition of fate.
The glass calls:
- My owner, please empty water out quickly. I don’t need water any longer.
But the owner is not here. The glass feels to be suffocated. Water is hateful, too cold. It feels uncomfortable with the presence of water. So it tries to shake itself with all its strength. Finally, water must flow. The glass has not enough time to be happy. It falls down and is broken into pieces. Before being broken, the glass sees every piece contains a few water. At that time, it realizes it really loves water. But it has no way to bring whole water back to it. The glass cries. Its tears dissolve with water. It tries with its final power to love water once more.
The owner returns, he picks up broken pieces. One piece cuts his finger to bleed. The glass smiles, finally what the love is, is it possible to spend sufferings in order to understand the value of respect? The glass smiles, finally what the love is, is it possible to loose everything and have no way to solve in order to understand how to let something run its course?

A Handful Of Salt

An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the master asked.
"Bitter," spit the apprentice.
The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake,and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake."
As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How does it taste?"
"Fresh," remarked the apprentice.
"Do you taste the salt?" asked the master.
"No," said the young man.
At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in.
So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things . . .
Stop being a glass. Become a lake.....