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Handling adversity
A daughter complained to her mother 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 a boil. In one she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and the last she
placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what she was doing. 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 a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee
out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to the daughter she asked. "Darling, what do you see."
"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
The mother brought the daughter closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it. After
pulling off the shell, the daughter observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked
her to sip the coffee.
She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. She humbly asked. "What does it mean Mum?"
She 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," the mother asked her 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 break-up, 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, to its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the
water gets the hottest, it just tastes better. If you are like the 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 a coffee bean?
We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.
-
Collected by Gurudev
MADE IN
INDIA
gurudevp@vsnl.net
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