When
Adversity Knocks
Mary was a young
girl. She used to get annoyed with everything. She had a negative attitude
towards life.
Once, when she
felt that life was unbearable, she asked her father what to do. She told him
that if she was able to manage and solve one problem, another one followed
quickly.
Her father
consoled her and took her to the kitchen. He asked Mary to take a potato, an
egg and two spoons of tea leaves. Mary was surprised, and asked her father, “Do
you want me to cook?”
“No,” her father
said.
He then took three
vessels and poured one cup of water in each vessel. The vessels were placed on
the stove. Once the water started to boil, he dropped the potato in a vessel,
egg in the second one and the tea leaves in the third one.
“Why are you doing
all these things?” Mary asked, really annoyed with her father.
“Just wait fifteen
minutes,” said her father.
The impatient daughter
managed to wait for around 15 minutes.
Father removed the
potato from the pot and placed in a plate. He did the same with the eggs. He
filtered the tea decoction using a cup.
Now, he placed the
two plates, one with the potato and the other with the egg, and the cup of tea
in front of Mary.
He asked Mary,
“What do you see?”
“Potato, egg and a
cup of tea,” said Mary.
“No, you are
wrong,” said her father. “Look at it closely and answer me.”
Mary replied the
same.
“Now touch it and
answer me.”
The potato was
cooked and was soft, the egg was boiled hard, and the tea carried a nice aroma.
Mary couldn’t find
the correct answer.
Her father said,
“The potato was so hard and strong before it was boiled; now it has turned soft
and smooth. Also, the egg was delicate but after boiling it became hard. Sip
the tea. It is delicious!”
Mary asked, “What
does it mean father? I don’t understand!”
“Each object
responded differently to water. Each object was put under the same kind of
circumstances, faced similar adversities, but reacted differently. The potato,
when put in boiling water, became very weak. The soft egg became very hard when
we put it in boiling water. And the tea leaves are unique. It changed the water
itself, giving it a unique flavour and aroma! It gave something new.”
Mary understood
that we can create something new and unique even when we experience
adversities.
No comments