The Carrots, Eggs & Coffee Beans

Friends, here is a good thought for the tough times. We must endure. Remember this story of the carrots, eggs and coffee beans. It may give you a different way to look at each cup of coffee you have in the morning.

 

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 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 different bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl of its own. Turning to her daughter, the mother asked, "Tell me what you see." "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," the daughter replied.

 

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were now 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 exact same adversity, boiling water. However, each reacted to the adversity 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 actually CHANGED THE WATER.

 

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?

 

• Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft, weak and lose your strength?
• Or are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes when the heat gets turned up? Did you have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have you become hardened and stiff on the inside? On the exterior, does your shell look the same, but on the inside are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
• Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean actually adapts and changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like 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 along 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.

 

Life is what we make of it. Too often we react to the things that are happening around us, or to us in a way that makes things worse. Life is not about what happens...but about how you react and respond to what happens. Life happens for you, not to you. How will you respond? May we all be COFFEE!

 

Live the life you deserve, live it with ENTHUSIASM...make TODAY a great day!!!

 

Curtis