Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Recently I read this anecdotal story on Facebook. I'm sharing here as food for thought:

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so difficult 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 because it seemed whenever one problem was solved, a new one arose. 

Quietly the mother led her daughter to the kitchen and filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. 

The mother 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 replied with a confused giggle. 

The mother brought her daughter closer and asked her to feel the carrots — when she did, she noted that they were soft.  

The mother then asked her daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.  

Finally, the mother asked her daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. 

The daughter then sighed and asked, "What's the point, mother?"  

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. 

But each of them reacted differently:

• The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting; however after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. 
• The egg had been fragile with a thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior; however, after sitting through the boiling water, the inside became hardened.
• The ground coffee beans were unique. After they were immersed in the boiling water, they 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?" 

Which are YOU? How do YOU handle adversity?

• Like the carrot that seems strong, but with heat and adversity, wilts and becomes soft losing strength?
• Like the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but hardens with heat even though the outer shells looks the same?
• Or like the coffee bean, able to change the hot water, changing the very circumstance that brought adversity. When the water gets hot, the coffee bean releases the fragrance and flavor. When the hours are the darkest and trials are the greatest, able elevate to another level? When coffee beans are at their "worst", they get better and change the situation around them.