A parable to make us ponder:

A pencil-maker told the pencil five important lessons before putting it in the box:

1) Everything you do will always leave a mark.

2) You can always correct the mistakes you make.

3) What is important is what is inside of you.

4) In life, you will undergo painful sharpening which will only make you better.

5) To be the best pencil, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds yours.

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We all need to be constantly sharpened.

This parable encourages us to remember that we are special and have unique talents and abilities.

Only you can fulfill the purpose which you were born to accomplish. Never allow yourself to get discouraged and think that your life is insignificant and cannot be changed.

Like the pencil, always remember that the most important part of who you are is what’s inside of you.

More thoughts on leaving marks

It is the individual who knows how little they know about themselves who stands the most reasonable chance of finding out something about themselves before they die. ~S.I Hayakawa

Unless we can bear self-mortification, we shall not be able to carry self-examination to the necessary painful lengths. Without humility there can be no illuminating self-knowledge. ~Arnold Toynbee

Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. ~St. Augustine

We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us. ~Jean-Paul Sartre

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. ~Henry David Thoreau

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing opinion we hold of ourselves with the appalling things that other people think about us. ~Quentin Crisp

There’s a lot of fear connected with the inner journey because it penetrates our illusions. Taking the inner journey will lead you into some very shadowy places. You’re going to learn things about yourself that you’ll wish you didn’t know. There are monsters in there—monsters you can’t control—but trying to keep them hidden will only give them greater power. ~Parker Palmer

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