Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

In one of my previous jobs, I used to receive a monthly motivation email filled with inspiring stories, anecdotes and quotes. Whilst doing some decluttering, I recently came across a print out of a particular story that touched me and I would now like to share it with you.

Are you a coffee bean?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After about twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked. “Darling, what do you see?”

“Carrots, eggs and coffee”, she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. 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. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. “What does it mean father?”

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But 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 insides became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you?” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity, do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a heartbreak, an adversity, you became hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing it pain, to its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.

If you are like the coffee bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make things better around you.

How to you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?