One day Alexandria cried to her mother, “I’m really tired of my problems! They never end!” She continued, “I just want to run away!” Immediately her mother put two pots of water to boil. In one pot, she put thick, hard carrots and in the other, some coffee beans. After 20 minutes, mother kept the pots on the table and asked Alexandria to see the carrots and the coffee beans. The first had become soft while the beans had turned the water into brown coffee and a wonderful aroma came from it. Alexandria did not understand. Mother explained, “The boiling water here is like your problems. If you are hard and unbending like the carrot then the troubles (boiling water) will make you shapeless. But if you are like the coffee beans, then you will adjust and change your troubles into coffee. Will you change like the coffee or cry and become shapeless like the carrot?” Alexandria understood and promised to resolve her problems instead of crying over them.
The Carrot and the Coffee Beans
