Carrot, Egg & Coffee

A young woman went to her mother and told her 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 mother took her to the kitchen.  She filled three pots with water and placed each on high fire.  Soon the pots came to boil.  In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans.  She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.  In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners.  She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl.  She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.  Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.  Turning to her daughter, she asked,"Tell me, what do you see?  Carrots, eggs and coffee."  The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"  Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity....boiling water.  Each reacted differently.  The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting.  However, after 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 inside became hardened. The ground coffee bean were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter.  "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?  Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?" 
The mother elaborated for her daughter; "Are you the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity yo wild, become soft and lose strength? Are you the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but then changes and hardens with the heat?  Some poeple have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, they become hardened and stiff.  Though their outer shell looks the same, on the inside they are rigid and unyielding.  Or perhaps you are like the coffee bean.  The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.  When the water gets hot, the bean releases its fragrance and flavour.
If  you area like the bean, you get better and change the situation around you, when things at their worst.  When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, you elevate yourself to another level.  So the next time you experience adversity, remember to ask youself, "Am I being a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"