A young woman went to her mother and told her, “Life is hard. I don’t know how I’m going t make it. I want to give up. I’m tired of fighting and struggling.”
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the water came to a 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 scooped 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 daughter, she asked, “Tell me what you see.”
“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled eggs. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she smelled the rich aroma and tasted its mellow flavor. “What does it mean?” she asked.
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrots went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, they softened and became pliable. 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?” the mother asked. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Like the carrots, the eggs or coffee beans?”
The daughter thought. Which am I? The carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I like the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Do 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 beans? The beans actually change the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If I am like the beans when things are at their worst, when the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do I succumb to the adversity? Do I give up? Or do I look at the situation with hope and trust and rise above it?
The daughter was silent for a moment. Then she smiled, “I’ll have another cup of coffee, Mom.”
May you, dear reader, 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 their way. So put your hand in the hand of the Man who stilled the waters. Put your hand in the hand of the Man who calmed the sea.