998 Good Bricks

Hello.

I’ve come across something so beautiful and I know nobody will pay mind to it if I just post about it, so I’ll type it all out. I’m pretty sure it’s based off of another story or poem or someone else’s work, but the way this version is worded is nothing short of beautiful. Read it. Enjoy it. Let it sit.

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“Laying bricks is not easy.

You think all you have to do is put some mortar down, put a brick on top and make it level,

but when you put the mortar down, you put the brick on top, there’s always one end that’s higher than the others

so you have to tap that end down.

That end goes down, another end goes up.

So you have to tap THAT end down, then it moves out of line!

So you’re gonna tap into line again, then the first end goes up.

It takes forever to get that brick straight.

But one thing which I have, which all monks have, is patience.

Doesn’t matter HOW long it takes, I’m going to make sure that every brick is perfect.

So, that’s what I did.

Every brick I made sure if it wasn’t right, I’d take it off and start again.

When I had finished my first brick wall, I looked at it and I was SO disappointed.

I was SO shocked! I was SO distressed!

I’d missed two bricks.

All the other ones were nice and level, but two bricks were this awful angle

and they spoiled the whole wall.

I tried to take them out, but the cement was just so hard they just would not come out.

And so I talked to the other man with me and I said,

“Can we buy some dynamite? Can I blow up that wall and start again?”

And he said,

“No.”

I wanted to destroy that wall cause I made a mess of the FIRST building project I did at that monastery.

I was so disappointed. I saw it EVERY day! Every day I went past that wall. I was so upset. I saw the two bad bricks in my mistakes.

When visitors came, I always managed to take them somewhere else, so they wouldn’t see my mistakes cause your mistakes are always embarrassed about,

but one day, a visitor came.

I was with them – they saw that wall.

What they said was,

“That’s a beautiful wall.”

I said to them,

“Are you crazy? Are you blind? Have you left your glasses in the car? Can’t you see the two bad bricks?”

And they said,

“Yes, I can see the two bad bricks, but I can also see the 998 good bricks as well.”

That hit me

like a brick.

I realized my mistake, not only in that wall, but in life as well.

Just too often, all we see is our two mistakes and you become blind to anything else other than what is wrong.

That’s all that was happening to me.

Every time I passed that wall, my eyes would just go to my faults, my mistakes.

I could not see anything other than my two mistakes.

I realized in life every time I saw a tragedy in life.

Every time I saw someone being abused or hurt,

there were 998 times, or probably much more, when people were being kind

and caring and beautiful and wonderful and loving and generous and inspiring.

Most people are actually pessimists.

A pessimist is someone like myself that always sees the two bad bricks in life.

The optimist is the person who only sees the 998 good bricks.

The realist is one who sees both.

Intellect loads the gun, but instinct pulls the trigger.”

 

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So, who are you?

 

I hope you enjoyed.

 

Much love and thank you for reading

Melanie Rose 1/10/18 22:07

 

998 Good Bricks // Zakaraka & Imaginomics