ADVERSITY

A daughter complained to her father about how hard her life was.  She didn’t know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up.  She was tired of fighting and struggling; it seemed that whenever she solved one problem, a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to his kitchen.  He filled three pots with water and placed each on high heat.  When they were boiling, he placed a carrot in first one, an egg in the second, and a bag of herb tea in the third, to which he added a teaspoonful of sugar. 

In about 20 minutes, he turned the burners off.  He fished the carrot out and placed it in a bowl.  He pulled the egg out and placed it in a bowl.  And then he ladled the tea into a bowl.  Turning to his daughter, he asked, “What do you see?”

“A carrot, an egg, and tea,” she replied.

 

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrot.  She did and noted that it was soft. 

 He then asked her to take the egg and break it.  After peeling it, she observed that it was now hard-boiled.   

Finally, he asked her to sip the tea.  She smiled as she smelled its aroma and tasted its sweetness.  Then she asked, “What’s the point?’

Her father explained that the carrot, egg, and tea had each 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.  Bit in the boiling water, it hardened.  The tea and sugar, however, were unique = they change the water.

“Which are you?” the father asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or tea and sugar?”

How about you? Does pain and adversity cause you to wilt and lose enough strength?  Or do you start off with a malleable heart, but then become hardened and stiff after a death, a break-up, a separation, or a lay-off?

Or are you like the tea and sugar, when things are at their worst you get better and make things better around you.

How do you handle diversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or tea and sugar?

This story was sent to HEALTH and HOME (magazine) over the internet.  They do not know who wrote it, but they believe that the spiritual lesson it conveys will benefit their readers, and so am I.