The Potters Wheel

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

Kahlil Gibran
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Hello Frosty
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I have a friend, David, who's a potter. I watched him work one day. I saw him brutally cut off a chunk of clay, thump it on the table and then throw the poor thing on a wheel. Then, while it was spinning within an inch of it's life he wet his hands and started strangling it. He forced it out of it's natural shape and then, as if that wasn't enough, he forced his thumbs into it and then his fingers and tortured it even worse into something round, Then he poked and scraped down into it's sensitive innards with some fiendish instruments, covered it all over with ugly sticky stuff and imprisoned it into an oven that was hotter than hell. When he finally rescued it, it was a beautiful, delicate, gentle bowl asking to be filled with the elixir of life.

I don't know about you, but I have been cut and thumped onto the hard surfaces by the meanness of life, thrown on the wheel and spun into fear, doubt and confusion, strangled with poverty, insecurity and tough times, pushed and squeezed with hard work until I was pulled apart, rebuilt and reformed, poked and scraped by lies and betrayals, glazed over with sweat and tears and baked in the oven of hellish experiences. And when they finally took me out I had a joyous smile on my face, an unquenchable appreciation for life and a sense of humor.
The pampered life is no life. The deep cuts made by the plow into our uncultivated being make the way for the seeds of genuine happiness, which is always much different from the simple lump of clay we start out thinking we are.

DB - The Vagabond
Never Give Up
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AUTUMN QUESTION

What event over the past year changed your life, a lot or a little?

Only 5 answers so far.

dbdacoba@aol.com

I await your answers.
DB
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