You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. 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 one problem was solved, a new one arose. Her mother 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 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 then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother 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 daughter. "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?
May you 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 along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.
May we all be COFFEE.
Showing posts with label metaphors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label metaphors. Show all posts
19.3.09
food for thought
this is something a friend of mine found and posted, so i'm recirculating the oh-so-true message :)
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metaphors
16.5.06
a thought reposted
This is a technique the Eskimos use to massively hunt wolves. They take a knife and kill one drenching the knife w/ the wolf's blood and then freezing it on. Once the blood freezes on, they dip it again and freeze. They do this repeatedly until the knife has a nice thick coating of blood, and then they sit several out in the middle of a field where they are having problems w/ lots of wolves. The wolves will smell that blood and find it. Desiring flesh, they lick the blood off the knife... As it melts and they taste the blood in their mouth, it makes them want more and more. They lick all the cold blood off and then they start to taste warm blood, not realizing it is their own. They lick and lick until they can't anymore. Soon, they can be found.... not far from the knife with bloody mouths and lifeless bodies. Isn't sad how our addiction sins: lust, greed, and jealously can do the same to us. We dont' always realize what we are doing to ourselves. I guess the main thing to remember... everything in moderation. Gluttonous desires destroy a person.
10.11.05
12.4.05
Unquenchable Goals
Desire has indestructible permeance. Desire is inextinguishable
-- Jacques Lacan
-- Jacques Lacan
There is something fundamentally insatiable about being human, as though we come into the world with ome kind of built-in tension between the experience of being hungry, which is a condition of striving and yearning, and the experience of being fed, which may offer temporary satisfaction but always gives way to new strivings, new yearnings. Once satisfied, the goal always tends to lead to another goal, and then another and another.
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metaphors
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