cup

  There was a couple who used to go to England to shop in the beautiful
  stores. This was their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques
  and pottery and especially teacups.   One day in this beautiful shop they
  saw a beautiful teacup. They said "May we see that? We've never seen one
  quite so beautiful."

  As the lady handed it to them, suddenly the teacup spoke. "You don't
  understand," it said. "I haven't always been a teacup. There was a time
  when I was red and I was clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted
  me over and over and I yelled out, let me alone," but he only smiled, 'Not
  yet.'

  "Then I was placed on a spinning wheel," the teacup said, "and suddenly I
  was spun around and around and around. Stop it! I'm getting dizzy!" I
  screamed. But the master only nodded and said, 'Not yet.'

  "Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I wondered why he
  wanted to burn me, and I yelled, and I knocked at the door. I could see
  him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook his head,
  'Not yet.'

  "Finally the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool.
  'There, that's better,' I said. And he brushed and painted me all over.
  The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. 'Stop it, stop it!' I
  cried. He only nodded, 'Not yet.'

  "Then suddenly he put me back into the oven, not like the first one. This
  was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I
  screamed. I cried. All the time I could see him through the opening
  nodding his head, saying, 'Not yet.'

  "Then I knew there wasn't any hope. I would never make it. I was ready to
  give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the
  shelf. One hour later he handed me a mirror and said, 'Look at yourself.'
  And I did. I said, 'That's not me; that couldn't be me. It's beautiful.
  I'm beautiful.' "

  'I want you to remember, then,' he said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and
  patted, but if I just left you, you'd have dried up. I know it made you
  dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have
  crumbled. I know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but
  if I hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were
  bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn't done that,
  you never would have hardened. You would not have had any color in your
  life, and if I hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldn't
  survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you
  are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with
  you."
-unknown author