Coffee: The Story of the Carrot, Egg and Coffee Beans

EK Encarnacion shared this inspirational story about FACING TRIALS:

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 gas burner. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed a carrot, in the second he placed an egg, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil without saying a word.

The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he got up and turned off the burners. He fished the carrot out and placed it in a bowl. He took the egg out and placed on a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her he asked. “Darling, what do you see?” “A Carrot, an egg, and coffee,” 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 pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she smelled and tasted its rich aroma. She asked. “What does these 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 from the beginning. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside 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 coffee beans?” The father continued, " Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity wilts and becomes soft and loses strength? Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, or a layoff have you become hardened and stiff? Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a harsh spirit and heart? Or are you like the coffee beans? The beans changed the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain. When the water becomes very hot and unforgiving, the coffee beans gave off a strong and rich aroma. If you are like the beans, when things are at their worst or in the midst of trials, you get better and make things better around you."