STORY OF TEA CUP

"There was a time when I was just a dumb lump of red clay. Then one day my master came. He took me, brought me home, rolled and pounded me on a wooden table. Again and again, he poked his fingers into me until finally I yelled out: 'Don't do that! Leave me alone!' But he only smiled and gently said: "Not yet!"

Then, whoommmm! I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly spun around and around and around until I lost all my sense of direction: 'Stop it; don't you see that I'm getting sick? Quickly, take me from the spinning wheel!' But the master only nodded in understanding and quietly said: "Not yet!"

Then he placed me carefully into an oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked and pounded at the door: 'It is hotter than hell - I'm burning to ashes. Please get me out of here before it is too late.' I could only read his lips as he shook his head from side to side and silently pronounced, "Not yet!"

After I had cooled down he carefully picked me up, looked at me and brushed some dust away. Then he brought the colors! The fumes were horrible! 'Please... you have no mercy! Please, Stop it!' But he only shook his head and said: "Not yet!"

An hour or later he came back and placed a mirror before me and said: "Look at yourself!" And I did.What I saw amazed me. 'That's not me!' I said. 'It is too beautiful...' With a very compassionate voice he spoke: "This is what you are meant to be," and then he explained: "I know it hurt you when I rolled and kneaded you on the table. But if I had not gotten the air out of you, you would have broken. I knew you must have lost all your sense of orientation when I was spinning you. But without this you would never have come into this form. I know the fumes of the colors were intolerable when I painted you all over. But if I had not done that, you would not have had any color in your life."

God is the potter and we are the clay. He will mold us and will expose us to just enough pressures of just the right kinds that we will become a perfect piece of His liking.

places of world

 pace of life in Monroe County, Alabama, has nurtured some notable literary figures. Harper Lee and Truman Capote have called the county home

 Katmai National Park and Preserve is home to more than 2,000 brown bears. In July and September they are often seen feasting on the world's largest sockeye salmon run.

 Mosques and churches dot Albania, one of Europe's only majority Muslim nations.

                                  The Sahara holds sandy sway over some 80 percent of Algeria.

Charming Café 't-Smalle, aperennially crowded restaurant, bar,and sidewalk café, is authentic Amsterdam

 Sandwiched in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, Andorra is ruggedly beautiful.

  Angolans perform at a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of independence from Portugal.

A dazzling sandy crescent, Half Moon Bay is one of Antigua's premier beaches.

 Dust flying, gauchos round up cattle on the vast Pampas in Rancul.

The otherworldly expanse of Monument Valley on the ColoradoPlateau draws visitors, photographers, and filmmakers alike.

 The panoramic view from Petit Jean Mountain encompasses the Arkansas River. Legend says that the summit is the resting place of Petit Jean—a faithful fiancée who accompanied her explorer beau to the New World in the guise of a man.

 The Khor Virap monastery stands before the snowcapped flanks of Mount Ararat.

The Poseidon Temple—mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey—is a timeless attraction.

Many of Atlanta’s 1,050 miles (1,689 kilometers) of streets are lined with flowering dogwood trees that bloom each spring

 Australia's Aborigines believe their ancestors formed massive Ayers Rock, or Uluru.

 Salzburg is a lively symphony of Baroque architecture and breathtaking alpine beauty.

 The harbor of Baku, the capital, is known as the finest on the Caspian Sea

                                Badlands National Park

 Storm clouds gather over the Wall, a 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of tiered cliffs in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. The cliffs drop sharply down to prairie, home to black-footed ferrets,bighorn sheep, and swift foxes

 The Bahamas has something for everyone—from vibrant city streets to tropical beaches.

 This island state is a leading financial and communications center for the Persian Gulf.

                                Southeast Asia’s most dynamic and exciting city, Bangkok is an intoxicating and sometimes jarring mix of modern and ancient. Scattered concrete skyscrapers share space with traditional wooden homes, while gleaming temples to fashion abut temples gleaming with golden Buddha images. Built on the floodplain of the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok was once known as the “Venice of the East” because canals crisscrossed it, though these have mostly been turned into traffic-clogged roads. They connect older quarters such as the royal island of Rattanakosin and heaving Chinatown with hotel and condominium filled districts around Sukhumvit, Silom, and Sathorn roads. Wherever you venture, the smells of jasmine and grilling street food will remind you where you are.

                               A rice paddy doubles as a paddock for a Bangladeshi farmer and his cattle.
This place truly is constantly changing. • Sitting on the largest river delta in the world, crouched beside the Bay of Bengal, this low-lying land sees its very soil renewed like clockwork each spring as the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers deliver countless tons of mineral-rich silt. • The world’s third largest Muslim nation, after Indonesia and Pakistan, Bangladesh is one of the most crowded places on the planet. • It's also home to many spectacular river-swimming Bengal tigers. • Over time, it has assimilated the beliefs of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Jainism, all of which may be seen in its cultural life today.

Great World War 2