SehaJ
Troublemaker
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 the 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 contents of each pot out and placed each in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the girl replied.
The mother asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked her to take the egg and break it. She broke the shell and 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 this all mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity... boiling water. Each reacted differently.
The carrot went in, hard, and unrelenting, but came out soft and weak.
The egg went in fragile, with only its thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior. After enduring the boiling water, the egg's inside became hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however, they went into the boiling water, took the heat and changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter.
"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Like a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Are you a carrot that seems strong, but which, after pain and adversity wilts, becomes soft and loses its strength?
Or are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Do you have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a break-up, a financial hardship or some other trial, you become hardened and stiff? Does your outer shell look the same, but on the inside you are bitter and tough, with a strong spirit and hardened heart?
Or are you like the coffee bean, which changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, the coffee bean releases its fragrance and flavor. If you are the bean, 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?
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes their way.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches. When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling.
Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
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