Once there was a day in a little Japanese house, there lived a little old Japanese woman.

When she was younger, she had recieved this little white vase as a gift from a dear friend and she loved that vase.

She put it up on the shelf and admired how pretty the little white vase was every time she glanced its way.

One day, this woman accidentally bumped against the shelf and the vase tumbled and shattered against the ground.

She was heartbroken. The little woman was so sad that her beautiful white vase was broken, never to be the same again.

The woman took this little white pieces to an older gentleman who specialized in repairs. Teary eyed, the woman asked if the man could fix the little vase and restore it to it's former beauty. The gentleman nodded and said that he would try to fix the vase, despite the cracks from the fall.

The woman waited many days and nights for her vase to be fixed when one day a soft knock was heard against the front door. She answered to find the gentleman with a smile and a paper package in his arm. The woman gasped in delight and when handed the package opened it to find what lay inside.

What was inside was her little white vase, all put together, but with golden seams holding everything together. The woman gasped as she saw that while the vase was beautiful before, it was much more exquisite there in that paper package.

She turned to the man and asked how he had been able to fix her vase and make it look more beautiful then when she first received it. He smiled and warmly answered, "Sometimes, what you think are faults, others view them as the ways you are beautiful."

The woman learned a lesson that day and many years from then, the little old woman still looked fondly upon the white vase and admired the the cracks that were filled with gold.

Sometimes we may think that we are broken and are shattered in pieces, unable to get up; but sometimes we have to fall in order to show the beauties of the gold underneath.