The Carrot, the Egg, and the Coffee Bean

September 9, 2008 | Filed Under Consider this, Moment of Truth, Rewritable words | 2 Comments

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know 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 mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In the first 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 twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, ‘Tell me what you see.”Carrots, eggs, and coffee,’ she 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 pulling 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 aroma.

The daughter then asked, ‘What does it mean, mother?’ Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity: boiling water. 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 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?’ she asked her daughter.

‘When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?’ Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along theirway. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can’t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying. It’s easier to build a child than repair an adult.

Via: Notes of a Genius…Not really

What My World Sounds Like: Lauryn & Otis

September 8, 2008 | Filed Under What My World Sounds Like | Leave a Comment

World is a HustleÂ

A Change Is Gonna Come

The best of both worlds: The Fugees –
A Change is Gonna Come

Stretch, distortion or bold lie?

September 7, 2008 | Filed Under Do your research!, Learn something, Moment of Truth, Website | 1 Comment

The fact that politicians lie shouldn’t be new to anyone. With both presidential candidates geared up and ready to go, you might want to do some research on who’s telling the truth before you cast that vote.

To assist you with deciphering the truth, enter FactCheck.org.

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, “consumer advocate” for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

Reporters Without Borders

September 6, 2008 | Filed Under Give time/money, Plain cool | Leave a Comment

Also known as Reporters San Fronteires, Reporters Without Borders is a registered French nonprofit organization with consultant status at the UN that advocates for freedom of the press.Â They operate in all five continents to investigate and expose cases of media censorship and persecution.Â Additionally, RSF supports the media by defending imprisoned and oppressed journalists, providing financial aid to media outlets, journalists, and families of imprisoned journalists, as well as working to improve the safety of journalists.

In order to fund their initiatives, Reporters Without Borders publishes photography albums twice a year and calendars and accepts donations, member dues, public grants and partnerships with private firms.Â They also have their own blogging software; it’s overpriced, but goes towards a good cause, if you can change your perspective.

Great words…

September 6, 2008 | Filed Under Rewritable words | Leave a Comment

“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.”
- Jane Wagner

Same shit, different place…

September 3, 2008 | Filed Under Consider this, Do your research!, Inspiring, Learn something, Moment of Truth, Pay attention, Thoughts, Watch this | 5 Comments

Who are we? What are we doing? What are we agreeing to? With our silence? Our obedience? Our complacency? Our willful ignorance?

We can connect the dots if we so choose to, but we choose not to. Why? Ignoring reality does not change reality. Does not make it go away. Does not push it further away from us.

So scared of losing everything, of dying, that we cannot see that we lose everything in our decision to not act with humanity, with love.

We lose everything while we sit and watch others suffer, sitting idly in our security ignoring all the signs that tell us “this isn’t real.”

This isn’t real! So much of our lives, of what we do, eat, think is fake and choosing to be okay with that means we’ve already lost it all. We lost. Because we’re not living anyway.

“We will defeat this war by making it unworkable on the ground
through thousands of collected acts of rebellion and disobedience.”

“We do not walk today to ask concessions from the powers;
they will never legislate peace or freedom.
We come to you. We turn to the living.
Their armies cannot occupy our dreams and their jails cannot hold our number.
This is our world and these streets belong to us.”