A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:

-Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
-I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.
Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
-But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!
-That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.

-First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.

-Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.

-Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.

-Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.

-Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action

Like the Flowing River by Paulo Coelho