LESSONS FROM THE OLD BEINGS

A young woman went to her grandmother and
told her about her life
and how things were so hard for her – her
husband had cheated on
her and she was devastated. 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 soon as one problem
was solved, a new one
arose.
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.
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 in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee
out and placed it in
a bowl.
Turning to her granddaughter, she asked, ‘Tell me
what you see.’
‘Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she replied.
Her grandmother brought her closer and 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 observed the hard boiled egg.
Finally, the grandmother asked the granddaughter
to sip the coffee.
The granddaughter smiled as she tasted its 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?
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that
seems strong, but
with pain and adversity? Do I wilt and become
soft and lose my
strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart,
but changes with the
heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a
breakup, a financial
hardship or some other trial, have I become
hardened and stiff? Does
my shell look the same, but on the inside am I
bitter and tough with
a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually
changes the hot
water, the very circumstance that brings the
pain.. When the water
gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If
you are like the bean,
when things are at their worst, you get better and
change the
situation around you. When the hour is the
darkest and trials are
their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another
level?
How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot,
an egg or a coffee
bean?