Potatoes, Eggs and Coffee - Which Are You?

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that life was miserable and that unfortunate things kept happening and she didn’t know how she was going to manage.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one followed.

Her father took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on the fire.

Once the pots began to boil, he placed 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.

The daughter moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After twenty minutes he took the pots off the fire.

He took the potatoes and the eggs out of their pots and put them in a bowl. He then poured the coffee into a cup.

Then he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs and coffee,” she replied.

“Look closer” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted they were soft.

“Now break an egg” he said. After pulling off the shell, she saw the egg was hard.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.
“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same situation - the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in, hard and unrelenting, but came out soft and weak.

The egg went in fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid inner, until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After being put in the boiling water they changed the water itself and created something new.

“Which one are you?” he asked his daughter.

The only thing that truly matters is how you choose to react to circumstances. Life is all about learning, adopting and converting all the struggles that we experience into something positive.

When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?