We Are Going To Make It Through This Year If It Kills Us

Yep.  We are.  You know I'm talking about you.  We're in this together and we'll get out together.  We've worked too hard and come too far to be stuck here, in this rut.  We are better than this.  We are worth more than this. We will survive this.

I'm reminded of a story I heard in law school:

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 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 richness and savored its 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?”

 
Change: this is my daily mantra.  It gets me up out of bed in the morning and keeps me moving through the day.  I try to change the place I'm at, though most times it's futile. I'm not really sure when I switched into survival mode, but, here I am; here we are.  I am thankful for the amazing girls I have around me, for their support, and their help.  I know, without a doubt, we will all be alright in the end. 

If you'd ever like to hear the real story, just ask me...I will surely tell you.  You prolly know most of it, it's just not something I'm ready to give away to the web as I'm not truly out of the situation yet.  Trust me, you'll know the minute it happens, though.

We are coffee beans, ladies! Let's make a change for ourselves! xoxo