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Being a Whole

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Once a circle missed a wedge.

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The circle wanted to be whole,

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so it went around looking for its missing piece.

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But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly,

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it admired the flowers along the way.

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It chatted with worms.

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It enjoyed the sunshine.

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It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit.

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So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching.

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Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly.

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It was so happy.

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Now it could be whole, with nothing missing.

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It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll.

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Now that it was a perfect circle,

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it could roll very fast,

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too fast to notice the flowers，to talk to the worms.

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When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly,

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it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

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The lesson of the story, I suggested,

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was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something.

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The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man.

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He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope,

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to nourish his soul with the dream of something better.

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He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him

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and gives him something he has always wanted or never had.

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There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations,

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who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams

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and not feel like a failure for doing so.

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There is a wholeness about the man or woman

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who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive,

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she/he can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

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Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing.

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Life is not a spelling bee,

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where no matter how many words you’ve gotten right,

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you’re disqualified if you make one mistake.

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Life is more like a baseball season,

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where even the best team loses one-third of its games

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and even the worst team has its days of brilliance.

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Our goal is to win more games than we lose.

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When we accept that imperfection is part of being human,

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and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it,

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we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to.

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That, I believe, is what God asks of us —

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not “be perfect”, not “don’t even make a mistake”, but “be whole.”

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If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive,

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generous enough to rejoice in another’s happiness,

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and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all,

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then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.