When Adversity Knocks

Mary was a young girl. She was rather sensitive and short tempered. She would deel bad about everything and had a negative attitude. She acquired these traits suddenly. One day she felt extremely miserable and requested her dad to help her out. She told him that if she managed to solve a problem, another one quickly followed quickly. Her father consoled her and took her to the kitchen. He asked Mary to take a potato, an egg and two spoonfuls of tea leaves. Mary was surprised and asked her father whether he wanted her to cook.

Her father shook his head. He then took three vessels and poured one cup of water in each of them. Each vessel was placed on the stove. Once the water started to boil, he dropped the potato in the first vessel, egg in the second one and tea leaves in the third one.

Mary was again annoyed and asked him what was he upto. The father asked her to patiently wait for a few more minutes. Mary managed to wait for around 15 minutes. Then the father removed the potato from the pot and placed it on a plate. He did the same with the egg. He filtered the tea decoction using a cup. Now, he placed the plates containing the potato and the egg along with the cup of tea in front of Mary.

He asked Mary,

‘What do you see?’

She said, ‘Potato, Egg and a cup of tea!’

‘No, you are wrong,’ said the father.

‘Look at it closely and answer me.’

Mary replied the same.

‘Now touch it and tell me. ‘The potato was cooked and was soft, the egg was hard boiled and the tea carried a nice aroma.’

Mary couldn’t find the correct answer. Her father replied,

‘The potato was hard and strong before it was boiled; now it is soft and smooth. Also, the egg was delicate but after boiling, it wasn’t so. Sip the tea, it is delicious!’

Mary asked, ‘What does it mean father? I don’t understand!’

‘Each object responded differently to water. That is how you have to be?

Each object was put in the same circumstance, faced similar adversity, but reacted differently. The potato, when put in boiling water, became very weak. The crumbled egg became very hard. When we put tea in boiling water, it changed the water itself, giving it a unique flavour and aroma!

Mary understood that we could create something new and unique even when we experienced adversity.

So, what are you? A potato or an egg or a tea leaf?