In
the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year old boy
entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass
of water in front of him. “How much is an ice cream sundae?” “50 cents,” replied the waitress. The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied a number of coins in it. “How
much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he inquired. Some people were now
waiting for a table and the waitress was a bit impatient. “35 cents,” she said brusquely. The little boy again counted the coins. “I’ll have the plain ice cream,” he said. The
waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked
away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and departed. When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then swallowed hard at what she saw. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip
Once
upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was
miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was
tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one
problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her
father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil,
he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground
coffee beans in the third pot. He
then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The
daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After
twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of
the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed
them in a bowl. He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied. “Look
closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” 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. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face. “Father, what does this mean?” she asked. He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The
egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid
interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the
egg became hard. However,
the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the
boiling water, they changed the water and created something new. “Which
are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door,
how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “ Moral:In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us. Which one are you
