The broken flower

A beautiful flower, made of glass, adorns my desk. The stem of this flower, that I value a lot, broke. I tried sticking the two pieces, trying to get it back in shape, exactly as it was, leaving no scars. But the splinters of glass that had disappeared would not allow that. Instead, all that I managed to to was chip off a few more splinters. After many trials, I succeeded in getting the flower back in one piece, though with a little, barely noticeable scar.

I could have given up, let it remain broken if it could not be perfectly restored. I am happy I did not give up, because the thing is so inherently beautiful, that a few scars can't take its sheen away. I learnt two lessons then. First, I learnt the hard way that it may not be wise to try to get things restored to exactly what they were, when in fact it may better to live with a little imperfection. I lost a few extra splinters in the process. The second lesson is that there is no reason to give up either, to not restore the flower when most of its beauty can be retained. The same mistakes shouldn't be repeated twice. No matter how difficult, the flower will remain in one piece. It now adorns my desk again.