My oldest daughter almost stole my next blog post right out from underneath me. 😉
In the past, I’ve been told the story about rocks and other things many times. Most of the time it is almost exactly the same. The situation changes a bit, but the story and the message behind it stays roughly the same. One story really got me thinking and it had an extra twist.
I’ll give a rough outline with my own little twist…
A master had three large piles of Stones, pebbles and sand behind him. He went to the pile of stones and filled is bucket with them. He asked is the bucket full? All of his students responded yes.
He then proceeded to add pebbles to the bucket, shaking them down until he could fit no more. Again he asked if the bucket was full. One brave student muttered probably not, or you would not have asked us the second time.
The master was pleased and then added sand to the bucket until it filled each crevice. He asked is the bucket full? All of his students said no.
“Very good!” the master replied, “You are learning.” He then added water until it almost reached the top. A student saw this, and said “The bucket is not yet full master.” At that point the master took his teapot and filled the bucket the rest of the way.
“What do you learn from this?” the master queried. One student responded, “No matter how full your life is, there is always room for more.”
The master said to this, “Not quite, the message is that if you don’t fill in the big rocks first, you will never get them in. So decide, what are your big rocks in life. Do those first. The little stuff will find its own path.”
“But why did you not fill the bucket with the water master?” a student finally asked.
To this the master replied, “No matter how busy you get, always leave room for a cup of tea with one you love.”
And that my friends is my story of the rocks, stones and sand….
We used this as an illustration for 4th/5th grade at camp once. The big rocks represented the most important ways to spend our time read: spiritual disciplines) while the water was the most unimportant time-filling (wasting) activities.
Bet you didn’t save room for tea…. 😉
Nope, no tea. 😀
Quite appropriate that I am reading this right after making a pot of tea for various loved ones: husband, friends we see often, a friend we haven’t seen recently, and a new-made friend. One more step in my quest to get everyone hooked on good tea.
I like the story and the lesson it illustrates; unfortunately, my rocks and sand are not so well-defined.