"The Gardener"

In the morning I cast my net into the sea.
I dragged up from the dark abyss things of strange aspect and strange beauty - some shone like a smile, and some glistened like tears, and some were flushed like the cheeks of a bride.
When with the day's burden I went home, my love was sitting in the garden, idly tearing the leaves of a flower.
I hesitated for a moment, and then placed at her feet all that I had dragged up, and stood silent.
She glanced at them and said, 'What strange things are these? I know not of what use they are!'
I bowed my head in shame and thought, 'I have not fought for these, I did not buy them in the market; they are not fit gifts for her.'
Then the whole night through I flung them one by one into the street.
In the morning travelers came; they picked them up and carried them into far countries.

- Quoted from "The Gardener" by Rabindranath Tagore

A really beautiful piece don't you think?! Very craftily stating that ever so often, we give away 'opportunities' that are within our grasp! Somehow, ever so often, we are so influenced by the people around us that we rarely stop and wonder if we should at all be doubting our intuitions!