Carrot, Egg or Tea Leaves

I just read an article today. As a matter of fact, I read this article few years back and now it is being published again. It all goes like this ...

One day, a daughter comes back and complaining how hard the day has been for her. Her mother was sitting quietly, listening and comprehending her complaints. When the daughter has finished her complaints, the mother took her into the kitchen and asked her to boil three pots of water. All along, the mother was smiling. Puzzled as she were, the daughter just did what the mother told her.

When the water has boiled, the mother had her daughter to put a carrot into the first pot, an egg into the second pot and some tea leaves into the third pot. Then, the mother asked her to let the pots simmer for some time. They just waited for the three pots to simmer. About 20 minutes later, the mother asked the daughter to turn off the fire.

"Take out the carrot, dear. Tell me what does the carrot feels like" "It is soft, mum"

"Take out the egg and tell me what it feels like." "Well, the egg is now hardened"

"How about this pot?" The daughter replied, "Wow, what a nice smell." "Now dear, pour out some tea and tell me more about the tea"

The daughter poured out and drank the tea. She was smiling and said, "Well, mum. This is oolong tea. Very nice. But what are you trying to tell me, mum?"

"Well, you see. The water is the same in all the three pots. These three things went in the pots containing the same water and being treated the same. The carrot went in strong, but it came out soft. The egg went in soft, but the inside of it became hard when it came out. The tea leaves, on the other hand, mixed with the water into nice aroma. Not only it smells nice, it also tastes nice."

"The water is the problem of life we all have. Some of us faced the problem the hard way, but in the end we became tired and burned out. Some of us faced the problem easily, but in the end, our hearts were hardened. Some of us are able to turn the problem around. These people are able to see blessings in every problem, they see problems as challenges not as obstacles."

The daughter finally learned one lesson today : treat problems as challenges, as blessings in disguise. Do you see the same? carpe diem ^^