Sharing Paulo Coelho: Story of the Pencil

This lovely piece is taken from "Like the Flowing River" by Paulo Coelho (author of the Alchemist). It is shared because I highly believe in its relevance!



I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on to 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 sharpener. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrow, because they will make you a better person.

Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub 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.


Thanks to http://www.eikongraphia.com/wordpress/wp-content/Pencil%20on%20pad%20of%20paper.jpg for the pencil picture.