A young woman went to her grandmother 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. Her grandmother 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.  When they were ready she took them out and placed them on a plate..

Her grandmother asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The grandmother then asked the granddaughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she found a hard boiled egg.  Finally, the grandmother asked the granddaughter to sip the coffee. The granddaughter smiled as she tasted its delicious rich aroma. The granddaughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, grandmother?’

Her grandmother 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 granddaughter. “When adversity  knocks  on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Choose what you are -

The  carrot that seems strong, but falls apart in times of difficulty

The egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat and becomes hard and unkind.

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water.   If you are like the bean, when things are  tricky, you show kindness and compassion and by doing this make things better for both yourself everyone around you.

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.