The Value of a Leaking Bucket

A Parable

It's not a big stretch to plug in those 65 and older who are now "leaky buckets"...

"An old woman in a small village who each and every day walked along a path to the pond with two wooden buckets to fill them with water to be used for the day's cooking and cleaning. The buckets were as old as she and one of them was showing signs of age, leaking out half its water by the time she returned to her home. One afternoon the sturdier bucket spoke to the one that leaked, chastising it for not holding up his end of the work. He said the bucket should just retire so the old woman could replace it with one that did not leak. The words were rather harsh and the old woman overheard the conversation.

She came over to the buckets and said, "I am grateful for both of my buckets, even though one of you leaks water. Do you know why?"

The sturdy bucket said he could not imagine what the old woman could find appealing about a bucket that was obviously of not much use.

She replied that each day they walked the same path and asked if the buckets had noticed anything peculiar about this path. When they could not find an answer, she said that one side of the path remained dry and without foliage whereas the other side was abundant with flowers and greenery. The reason being, of course, that the side where the leaky bucket was carried was being watered generously each day".