Article in Stretton Focus, June 2016
A young woman went to her mother and told her that she didn’t know how to cope with her life. It seemed to be one huge struggle after another bringing up her family.
Her mother took her into the kitchen and filled three pots with water. In the first she put carrots, in the second eggs and the third coffee beans. She let the pots boil for about twenty minutes. Then she took the carrots and eggs and placed them in separate bowls and ladled the coffee into a third . She then asked her daughter what she could see. “Carrots, eggs and coffee,” she replied. Her mother then asked her daughter to feel the carrots and she found that they were soft. She then asked her to break one of the eggs. She pulled off the shell and felt that it was hard-boiled. Finally her mother asked her daughter to sip the coffee and taste its rich aroma.
The daughter wanted to know the point of the exercise. Her mother explained that each of the objects had faced the same adversity, similarly to human beings in their life. The carrot went in strong and hard but the boiling water softened it and it became weak. The egg had been fragile, its thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior, but the boiling water hardened its inside. The ground coffee beans were unique because once they were in the boiling water they changed it into delightful coffee.
The question now is: Which are you?
Are you a carrot? When faced with adversity do you become weak and lose your patience and strength? Are you like the egg which looks the same on the outside but is hard inside?
Or are you like the coffee bean which actually changes the nature of the hot water, i.e. the very circumstances that bring the pain? When the water gets hot it releases the fragrance and flavour. If you are like the bean when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hours are the darkest and trials are at their greatest could you rise to another level in the face of adversity? Can you be the change we would wish to see in the world?
Would you rather be a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
(Based upon a story, author unknown)
David Hill
