A carrot, an egg, and a cup of coffee...You will never look at a cup
of coffee the same way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her 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 mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high
fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the
second she placed eggs,
and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil;
without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots
out and placed them
in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she
ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she
asked, ' Tell me what you see.'
'Carrots, eggs, and coffee,' she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and
noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg
and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg.
Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter
smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, 'What does it
mean, mother?'
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same
adversity: boiling water.
Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting.
However, 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?' she asked her daughter. 'When adversity knocks on your
door, how do you respond? Do get soft and weak like the carrot? Do you stay hard on the outside, yet grow a tough bitter heart on the inside? Or are you the coffee, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you?
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate
yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an
egg or a coffee bean?
