An elderly lady had two large pots, one hung on each end of a pole that she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other *** was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked *** arrived only half full.

Every day the woman brought home only one and a half pots of water. Of course the perfect *** was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked *** 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 ***'s side? Every day while we walk back, you water them. I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without your being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

QUOTE FROM LEONARD COHEN'S "ANTHEM": "There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."