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Pablo was still walking along the beach.
The bowl was in his hands.
Every now and then, he stopped and looked at it.
He turned it over.
He ran his fingers around the outside of it, and then around the smooth edge at the top.
He wondered about its value.
Not its value in money.
He did not mean:
"How much could I sell this bowl for?"
Or:
"How much would it cost in a shop?"
He was thinking about a different kind of value.
Who had made it?
How had they made it?
How long had it taken them?
What tools had they used?
And what was the bowl actually made from?
He held it up towards the sunlight.
There were small marks across its surface.
They were not scratches exactly.
They looked more like signs that it had been made by hand.
Perhaps someone had spent hours making it.
Perhaps someone had spent days making it.
Perhaps the person who made it had learned how to make bowls from another person.
And perhaps that person had learned from someone before them.
Pablo liked that idea.
He rubbed his hands across the bowl again.
Then he wondered what the bowl could do.
It could hold something, of course.
It could sit on a table.
It could be carried.
But it could also make a sound.
Pablo gently touched the side of the bowl.
The sound was quiet at first.
Then it opened.
It seemed to move out across the beach, towards the waves, before slowly disappearing into the wind.
Pablo listened until he could no longer hear it.
What was the value of a sound like that?
The sound only lasted for a few seconds.
But perhaps those few seconds could change the way someone felt.
Perhaps value was not always about how long something lasted.
Perhaps value was about what happened while it was there.
As Pablo continued walking, the bowl reminded him of a story he had once read.
It was a story about a very famous man, an old friend, and a journey to a tiny island near the bottom of the world.
And Pablo began trying to remember it.
Questions to think about
- What words in the story describe the bowl?
- What did Pablo wonder about when he looked at the bowl?
- Have you ever held something that felt valuable, even though it was not worth much money?
- What sound helps you to stop, listen and feel calm?
