There once was a
daughter who complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she
did not know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and
struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one
soon followed. Her father, a chef took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots
with water and placed each on a high fire.
Once the three pots
began to boil, he placed potatoes in one, eggs in the second and ground coffee
beans in the third. He then let them sit and boil without saying a word to his
daughter. The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing. After twenty minutes he turned off the burners.
He took the potatoes
and the eggs out of the pot and placed them in separate bowls. He then ladled
the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her, he asked. “Daughter,
what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she hastily replied. “Look
closer”, he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were
soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the
shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked
her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face. “Father,
what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs
and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity the boiling water. However,
each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unrelenting,
but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.
The egg was fragile,
with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in
the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard. However, the ground
coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they
changed the water and created something new. “Which one are you?” he asked his
daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a
potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
It is in times of
adversity and change that we truly discover who we are and what we are made of.
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