The Carrot, the Egg, and the Coffee Bean

     There was once a young woman who went to her mother and told her about how hard things were going on in her life. She did not know what to do and she already wanted to give up. She was tired of the constant struggling and seeking for solutions because it seemed like as one problem is solved, another one arose. Now, she asked her mother what she has to do. She desperately wanted to escape all her problems.

    Hearing her child's concerns, the mother took her daughter to the kitchen. There, the mother filled three pots with water and placed each on high fire over the stove. Soon, the water inside the pots came to a boil. In the first pot, the mother placed the carrot, in the second pot she placed an egg, and in the last pot she placed coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, still without saying a word. After about twenty minutes, she put out the fire. She spooned out the carrot and the egg and ladled the coffee out and also placed it in a mug.

   Turning to her daughter, the mother asked, "Tell me. What do you see?"

   The daughter answered, "I can see a carrot, an egg, and coffee."

   The mother asked her daughter to come closer and feel the carrot. The daughter did and noted that it was soft. The the mother asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. The daughter did and after pulling off the shell, she saw the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to drink the coffee. the daughter smiled as she tasted the coffee's rich aroma.

   The mother replied, "Each of these things faced the same adversity. They were all subjected to boiling water. But each reacted differently. The carrot was strong and hard before it was placed in the pot, but it came soft and weak. The egg was fragile and the only protection it has was a thin outer shell. But after sitting through the boiling water, the shell remained but the inside hardened. On the other hand, the coffee beans were exceptional. After they were placed in the boiling water, they had changed its color and flavor.

   "Think of this, my daughter," the mother said, "Which am I? Am I a carrot which seemed strong, but with pain and suffering, do I wilt and lose my strength? Am I an egg which starts with a soft heart but changes with the heat - did I have fluid spirit but after suffering, does my shell look the same but on the inside I became bitter and tough? Or am I a coffee bean that changes the water - the trouble that brings the pain - in which when hardship arise, I get better, retain my strength and change the situation?"