Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee

A young woman complained to her mother about the hardships and difficulties in her life. She didn’t know how she was going to continue and wanted to give up. The young woman said, “I’m tired of fighting and struggling. It seems that as soon as one problem is solved, a new one appears.” In response, her mother took her to the kitchen and filled three pots with water, placing each on the stove over a high flame.

 

Soon the water came to boil. In the first pot 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 20 minutes, she turned off the burners. The mother then fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She removed the eggs and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she said, “Tell me what you see.”

 

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” the daughter replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After peeling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich flavor.

 

The daughter then asked, “What does it mean, Mother?”

 

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity, boiling water, and each 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, its thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior, but after the boiling water, its inside became hardened. But the ground coffee beans were unique—after they were in the boiling water, they’d changed the water itself.

Excerpt taken from Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling—written by Dr. Wayne Dyer

I love synchronicity—especially when it smacks me right in the face.

Yesterday morning I read Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee in Dr. Wayne Dyers book—Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling and immediately, I connected with it. The message left me inspired.

Then I heard, “Blog about it.”

My reply, “Okay, I’ll add it to my list,” and then conveniently filed it away for later.

But then, all day I kept seeing—in random places mind you—a carrot or an egg or coffee, reminding me of the blog.

“Okay. Okay. I’ll get to it later,” I repeated.

After booting up my computer to check email, there staring me in the face was an email from Wayne Dyer (I signed up for his newsletter from Hay House) titled Carrots, Eggs, and Coffee. He had emailed me the story!

I felt the Universe telling me that someone needed to read this story (and most likely it was me!).

So, which one are you—a carrot, an egg, or coffee?

When you experience hardships in life are you more like a carrot? Do you start off hard on the outside but then the pressure of the boiling water makes you soft, losing strength and the will to move forward?

Or, are you an egg? Does adversity cause you to become hard on the inside—closed off from family and friends? Maybe even God?

What about coffee? When life becomes difficult, do you allow the fragrance of your core to seep through changing your situation?

Instead of becoming weak or hardened, a coffee bean transforms the water into a sweet aroma from its core being. It flavors the water causing it to become something better—more tasteful.

For me, the message of this story is clear; always remember who you are—a divine being filled with God’s love and grace. You have the power to transform any situation in your life. Let your soul’s fragrance change the boiling water or your hardship into one of beauty, elegance, and a decadent flavor.

We can choose to be anything—become a coffee bean.