Category | Yarn |
Time to allocate (mins) | |
Story |
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. |