Yesterday, I was clever so I wanted to change the world.
Today, I am wise so I am changing myself.
– Rumi
A young woman went to her mother in the midst of enduring the pandemic – complaining about how things were so hard for her. She was tired of the social constraints. And the loss of a substantial portion of her income was wreaking havoc with her ability to pay her bills. Anxiety riddled through her.
Her mother took her to the kitchen, filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. When the pots began to boil, in the first pot 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.
Twenty minutes later, 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.
“Feel the carrots,” the mother said. Her daughter did and noted that they were soft.
“Take an egg and break it,” the mother said.
The daughter pulled off the shell and observed the hard-boiled egg.
“Sip the coffee,” the mother asked. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
“What does it mean, mother?” the daughter then asked.
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: BOILING WATER. And each reacted differently. Each changed in a distinctive way.
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 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?
“Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, wilts and becomes soft and loses strength?
“Are you the egg – that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat to become hardened and stiff on the inside?
“Or are you 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 fragrance and flavor. When the hour is the darkest and trails are their greatest, the coffee bean elevates itself to another level.
How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?
The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
Keep Preserving your Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor