A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:
‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words
is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you
grow up.’
Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’
‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which,
if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at
peace with the world.’
‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but
you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call
that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop
writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but
afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain
pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use
an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something
we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road
to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is
not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay
attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always
leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you
do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your
every action’
