BE BOLD......BE FRAGRANCIVE..........

A daughter complained to her father about her life
and how things were so hard for her. She did not 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 high
fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed
carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he
placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil,
without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited,
wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes
he and turned off the burners. He fished the carrots
out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out
and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out
and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the
carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He
then asked her to take an 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 tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. "What does it 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. 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 a coffee bean? "

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard,
but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become
soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable
heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a
breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become
hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but
are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and
heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes
the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, to
its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When
the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their
worst, you get better and make things better around
you.