Thursday, July 31, 2008
I was reading this which I found to be meaningful. Thus, I'm reproducing the story here to share with all of you. Let's strive hard to be the coffee bean - to overcome adversity and make the environment (be it physical surroundings, people around us, practices, etc...) around us a better place than what we started with. :)
A young girl 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.
Her mother took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first pot, she placed carrots, in the second pot she placed eggs, and the last pot 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.
Her mother asked her what does she see but she does not comprehend what her mother was trying to tell her.
Her mother explained that each of the three item (egg, carrot and coffee bean) was subjected to the same adversity which is the boiling water. The egg which had a thin shell and an liquid interior, is easily breakable. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hard. This egg which starts with a changeable internal spirit, became tough, bitter and hardened after facing pain and adversity although the surface is the same.
The carrot, although seemed strong in the beginning, turned soft and lost all of its strength.
The coffee beans after subjecting to the hot water, changed the very same circumstances that caused it pain and make the hot water into aromatic coffee.
When the goings gets tough, the tough gets going.
Are you like the coffee bean? When things gets worst, do you get better and change the situation around you? When the hours is at its darkest and trials are at its greatest, do you elevate to the next level and progressed? How would you handle adversity? Would you chose to be a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?