I came across an allegory that I found quite enlightening regarding the consequences of your actions and how we should respond to adversity when facing it. The author is unknown so I can’t give credit to the rightful person but I hope you find this as insightful as I do.
Once upon a time, a child complained to a loving father that life was miserable and that the child didn’t know how they were going to pull through. The child was sick of battling and struggling all the time. It appeared just as one issue was worked out, a different one shortly followed.
The loving father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled up 3 pots with water and placed each on a high fire. When the 3 pots started to boil, he put 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 the child.
The child groaned and impatiently waited, questioning what he was doing. After several minutes, he switched off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and put them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and put them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and put it in a cup.
Addressing the child, he asked, “Child, what do you see?”
“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” the child hastily responded.
“Look closer”, he stated, “and touch the potatoes”. The child did and noticed that they were soft. He then asked the child to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, the child noticed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked the child to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a grin to the child’s face.
“Father, what does this mean?”
He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs, and coffee beans had each confronted the same hardship, the boiling water. However, each one responded differently. The potato went in strong, hard and unforgiving, but in boiling water it got soft and weak. The egg was fragile with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior till it was set in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg got hard. However, the ground coffee beans were unparalleled. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they altered the water and produced something new.
“Which are you?” he asked his child. “When hardship knocks on your door, how do you react? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”
In life, things occur around us and things happen to us, but the sole thing that truly matters is what occurs inside us.
Are you the potato that gets soft and weak under adversity? Perhaps you’re the egg that becomes tough and hard inside. Or maybe you are like the coffee which flows dynamically and shares itself thus changing the world around you. Comment below and share your thoughts and philosophies on these thoughts.
Rob
