How do you handle adversities?
When the hours are the darkest and the trials are their greatest, how do you behave?

A long time ago, when I was a little lady, I went to talk to my beloved Grandmother Maria about how things were going wrong in my life and she told me a wonderful story that changed my life forever.
A young lady went to talk to her grandmother and told her about her struggles and how she was suffering with so many things going wrong in her life. The young lady was devastated. She didn’t know how she was going to make it and she wanted to give up. She was so tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed that as soon as one problem was solved, a new one even bigger arose.

Her grandmother took the young lady’s hand and took her to the kitchen. She filled 3 pots with water and put them on the stove. Once the water was boiling, the grandmother added carrots in the first pot, eggs on the second and ground coffee beans in the third pot. Without saying a word, she waited for twenty minutes, then switched off the stove. She put the carrots, eggs and coffee in separate bowls, then turned to her granddaughter and asked:
“What do you see?”
“Carrots, Eggs and Coffee.” Answered the granddaughter.

The grandmother brought the bowls closer to her and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and she noticed that the carrots were soft. Then, the grandmother asked her to get an egg and break it. She did and she noticed that the egg was hard.
Finally the grandmother asked her to taste the coffee. She smiles as she tasted the delicious aroma.

“What does it all mean, Granny?”
Her Grandmother explained that each one had experienced the same adversity: the boiling water. Each one reacted different to the adversity.
The carrot was strong and inflexible, but after being confronted with hot water it got soft and fragile.
The egg was fragile with a thin shell to protect its liquid inside, but after being put in hot water its interior became hard.
However the coffee bean was the only one that after being put into hot water, it changed the water.

“Which one are you?” asked the Grandmother.
“When the adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?”
“Are you a carrot, egg or coffee bean?”
Think about it: “Who am I?”

Am I like a carrot which seems strong but wither with the pain from adversity?
Do I have a hard spirit, but after difficulties, I get weak and give up?
Am I like an egg which start malleable and become hard with the heat?
Do I have a soft spirit, but after a separation, financial difficulty or other adversity, I become hard?
Does my shell seem the same, but in my interior I am more bitter with my heart & spirit hardened?
Or, …
Am I like the coffee beans that change the hot water and the circumstances that bring pain?
When the water gets hot, the coffee bean liberates its aroma and flavor.
If you are like coffee, when things are in their worst, you make the situation around you better.

When there is darkness and the obstacles are difficult, do you elevate yourself to another level?
How do you deal with adversities?
Are you a carrot, egg or coffee bean?

The happiest people are not the ones who have the best of everything,
they are the ones who make the best of everything that comes in their way.

May we all be coffee! Cheers!