Responding Adversities

Once, a middle class woman complained to her father about her miserable life and told her father that she became sick of her troubles and struggling in her daily life.

Without uttering a single word her father placed three pots of water in three stoves on a high fire. Once the water started boiling, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the other pot, and ground coffee powder in the third pot and allowed three pots to boil well. His daughter kept watching impatiently.

After fifteen minutes he took out the potatoes and eggs out and kept in two different plates. Then he poured the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Now he asked to touch the potatoes which became soft after boiling and when she touched the egg which became hard after boiling. Finally she had a sip of the aromatic coffee from the cup. Now he narrated her daughter that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water. Anyhow, each one reacted differently.

The potato which was initially strong & hard became soft and weak after boiling. The egg which was fragile, with the thin shell became hard after boiling. But the coffee powder was exceptional. After boiling, it changed the water that was boiling it and created something new.

Now he asked his daughter that whenever the adversity knocks her door, how she would like to respond. Like a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?

In our lives many untenable things may happen but the significant thing is what happens within us.