THE CARROT, THE EGG AND THE COFFEE BEAN

Put three pots of water over the fire.
In the first pot, put some carrots.
In the second pot, put some eggs.
In the third pot, put some coffee beans that have been grounded into coffee powder.
Boil all three pots for 15 minutes.
Take out what you put in.

The carrots went in hard.
They are now soft.
The eggs went in soft inside.
Now they are hard inside.
The coffee powder has disappeared.
But the water has the colorful and the wonderful smell of coffee.

Now think about life.
Life is not always easy.
Life is not always comfortable.
Sometimes life is very hard.
Things don’t happen like we wish.
People don’t treat us like we hope.
We work very hard but get few results.
What happens when we face difficulties?

Now think about the pots.
The boiling water is like the problems of life.
We can be like the carrots.
We go in tough and strong.
We come out soft and weak.
We get very tired.
We lose hope.
We give up.
There is no more fighting spirit.
Don’t be like the carrots!

We can be like the eggs.
We start with a soft and sensitive heart.
We end up very hard and unfeeling inside.
We hate others.
We don’t like ourselves.
We become hard-hearted.
There is no warm feeling, only bitterness.
Don’t be like the eggs!

We can be like the coffee beans.
The water does not change the coffee powder.
The coffee powder changed the water!
The water has become different because of the coffee powder.
See it.
Smell it.
Drink it.
The hotter the water, the better the taste.

We can be like the coffee beans.
We make something good from the difficulties we face.
We learn new things.
We have new knowledge, new skills, new abilities.
We grow in experience.
We make the world around us better.

To succeed, we must try… and try again.
We must believe in what we are doing.
We must not give up.
We must be patient.
We must keep pushing.
Problems and difficulties give us the chance to become stronger… and better… and tougher.