A daughter
complained to her father about her life and how things were
so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make
it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and
struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one
arose.
Her father, a chef,
took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil.
In one he placed
carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he
placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil,
without saying a word.
The daughter sucked
her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing. In about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He
fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled
the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the
coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her he
asked. "Darling, what do you see?"
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She
did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take
an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she
observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip
the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
She humbly asked.
"What does it mean Father?"
He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity,
boiling water, but each reacted differently.
The carrot went in
strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to
the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been
fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its
inside became hardened.
The ground coffee
beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling
water, they had changed the water.
"Which are
you?" he asked his daughter. "When adversity
knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot,
an egg, or a coffee bean?"
How about you?
Are you the carrot that seems
hard, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft
and lose your strength?
Are you the egg, which starts
off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after
a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become
hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you
bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?
Or are you like the coffee
bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is
bringing the pain, and reaches its peak flavor at 212 degrees
Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes
better.
If you are like the coffee
bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make
things better around you .
How
do you handle adversity?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or coffee?
