Once
upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and
that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting
and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another
one soon followed.
Her
father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed
potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the
third pot. He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his
daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing.
After
twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot
and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.
He
then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked.
“Daughter, what do you see?”
“Potatoes,
eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.
“Look
closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were
soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the
shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the
coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.
“Father,
what does this mean?” she asked.
He
then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the
same adversity– the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The
potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became
soft and weak. The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its
liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the
egg became hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were
exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.
“Which
are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do
you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “
