The Tale of the Boiling Water

Once upon a time, teenage daughter came stomping through into the family kitchen, complaining to her mother that her life was miserable and crappy and that she couldn't see it getting better. She was fed up with everything being a fight and a struggle all the time. It seemed to her, that just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed. Her mum pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and just pointed to it. So the daughter gave a big sigh, rolled her eyes and sat down on the kitchen chair with her arms folded. She watched as her mum filled three saucepans with water and placed each on the gas stove, with the heat turn up high.

"Err, mum, what on earth are you doing!?" the daughter asked with more than a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Just wait" she replied.

Then once the three pans began to boil, she placed a potato in one saucepan, an egg in the second, and ground coffee beans in the third. She then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to her daughter. The daughter, moaned, tutted, and sighed while impatiently waiting, still wondering what her mum was playing at. Then after twenty minutes the mother turned off the burners. Took the potato out of the pan and placed them it a bowl. Then she pulled the egg out and placed that too in a bowl. Then she poured the coffee out and into a mug.

Turning to her daughter, she asked. “What do you see?”

“A potato, an egg and a cup coffee!” the daughter hastily snapped, still with her arms folded.

“Look closer”, the mother said, “touch the potatoes.” So the daughter did and noticed how soft they were.

She then asked her to take the egg and crack it open. So after pulling off the shell, she observed the egg was very hard-boiled.

Finally, she asked her to have a sip of coffee. So she did, the rich aroma filled her nose and actually brought a smile to her face.

“Mum", she asked, "what does all this have to do with me?”

So the mother explained that the potato, the egg and the coffee beans had all faced the same adversary – the boiling water. However, each one reacted differently. The potato went into it strong, hard and unrelenting, but in the boiling water, had became soft and fluffy. The egg was fragile, with it's thin 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 actually changed the water and created something new.

“Which one are you?” she asked her daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?”

Do have yourselves a simply gorgeous Friday, I'll see you on the flip side.