Balls of Clay

Heard this story some time ago. And received it in the email again yesterday. If you kow the source, do let me know so that I give due credit.


A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.
Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel.. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.


There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you.. Thank you for looking beyond my clay vessel.

APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!
LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!

Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps if you are not willing to MOVE your Feet'

I made a U-turn

I was driving to meet a customer. I know I will take this certain road, then turn off at point X. I have been using this particular road to go to my office for many years. Only thing is I'll not turn left at point X, but go straight towards my office.

I was listening to music on the cd, thinking my many thoughts, when I realised I've over-shot my exit point and was driving straight towards the direction of my office! Old habits!! Aaargghh. Now I've to to drive on for at least 500m before the next U-turn, and from that U-turn, I'll have to drive 2.5 km to reach my intended destination!

Have you ever experience the moments when you were driving home and reached your destination without really remembering what happened, except that there was no accidents involving you? That's the sub-conscious mind guiding you home. It's also something called 'Unconscious competency' (one of the 4 stages of Competency)

Of course I was rather upset with myself. Wasted time, because I was not concentrating on the road, not focused! And I allowed my old habits to guide me. Althought this particular habit is neither good or bad, it costs me TIME.

How many times have we allowed our old habits get in the way of what we really want to achieve?

We want more customers. We know we need to make the calls. But the habit of procrastination is easier.

We want better relationships. We know we need to spend time with the people who matters to us. But the habit of accomodating ourselves first (and selfishness) is easier

We want self-improvement. We should read the book, listen to the motivational CD. But the habit of sitting in front of the TV is easier.

The good news is - there's always a U-turn in front. It may be very near, or may be a little further away, or may even be quite far ahead. But the U-turn is always there. It's up to us to take the U-turn. And the more U-turns we missed, the longer it'll take us to get to our desired destination.

I U-turned. What about you?

My Garden 3

Yes, I'm still on the topic of 'My Garden'

The incident in "My Garden 2" happened more than a year ago. I am happy to report that I have been diligently watering, fertilizing and weeding it. One thing I noticed – that no matter how much I do, new weeds keeps growing. Yes, I have tried to get out the roots as well, but I guess the roots are still deep down in the earth. Or maybe the weeds just got carried into my garden by the wind or a dog or cat? The best I can do is to keep weeding to ensure that they don’t take roots too deep. And the activity of weeding allows me time to think and reflect. It allows me to contemplate the beauty of the other plants growing.

So, yes, we are not living in a vacuum. We are still living in this world, full with its attractions and distractions. Things and events are happening around us. And we will mostly react to it.

I learnt something profound a few years back. The action ‘REACT’ - when we take medication and we ‘react’ to it, it basically means the medication is no good for us. On the other had, when the medicine is working, it’s usually said, "I am responding well to the medicine". So – don’t react, but RESPOND to the stimulus. ‘React’ implies that we have no choice, but we can choose our ‘RESPONSE’. Isn’t that good news?

And when we take time to ‘weed’ out the negatives from our lives, it’ll also allow us time to contemplate and appreciate the positives surrounding us.

Another thing about my Garden – many of the plants grew wild and some also stopped blossoming. Why? Upon consultation with another Gardener, I learned that I have to ‘trim’ my plants. I’ve to cut of some branches to allow more shoots and flowers to grow. And so I did! The flowering trees look so much nicer, and in just a few days, I noticed flowers budding. Isn’t that incredible?

No matter how ‘positive’ we are about ourselves, and no matter how much we’ve already achieved, we still need to be vigilant and keep ‘pruning’ ourselves, keep ‘refining’ ourselves. There are still so many things to learn, so many areas to explore. But don’t grow wild. Grow with purpose! Grow to your potential!