CARROT, EGG OR COFFEE?
CARROT, EGG OR COFFEE?
A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so difficult for her. She didn’t know how to go on and she believed that she would give up. She was tired of fighting. It seemed that when she solved one problem, another appeared.
Her father, a chef de cuisine, took her to his workplace. There she filled three pots with water and placed them over a strong fire. Soon the water in all three pots was boiling. In one she placed carrots, in another she placed eggs and in the last one she placed coffee beans. She let them boil without saying a word.
The daughter waited impatiently, wondering what her father was doing. Twenty minutes later the father put out the fire. He took out the carrots and placed them in a bowl. He took out the eggs and placed them on another plate. Finally, he strained the coffee and put it in a third container.
Looking at her daughter, she said, “My dear, what do you see?”
-“Carrots, eggs and coffee” was his answer.
He made him come closer and asked him to touch the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. She then asked him to take an egg and break it. After removing the shell from it, she looked at the hard-boiled egg. She then asked him to try the coffee. She smiled as she basked in the rich scent of her.
Humbly the daughter asked: “What does this mean, father?”
He explained that all three elements had faced the same adversity: boiling water, but had reacted differently. The carrot arrive to the water strong, solid; but after going through the boiling water it had become weak, easy to undo. The egg had reached the fragile water, its thin shell protecting its liquid interior; but after being in boiling water, its insides had hardened. The coffee beans however were unique; after being in boiling water, they had switched to water.
“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot that seems strong but when adversity and pain hit you, you become weak and lose your strength? Are you an egg, starting with a malleable heart? “You had a fluid spirit, but after a death, separation, or layoff have you become hard and rigid? On the outside you look the same, but are you bitter and harsh, with a hardened spirit and heart?
Or are you like a coffee bean? The coffee changes to boiling water, the element that causes him pain. When the water reaches the boiling point, the coffee reaches its best flavor. If you are like the coffee bean, when things get worse you react better and make things around you better.
And you, which of the three are you?
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