Enjoy Your Coffee
Okay, coffee fiends, it's not really about coffee.
I replied to my grandfather with a brief about my birthday
with apologies that it was just some chronology and not a real
letter, the kind with observations and feelings.
He apologize for impinging on my time. Egads! My grandfather
is a burden? No. So I wrote him a philosophical essay on
efficiency and life choices and the such.
His reply was canned goods but most appropos......
ENJOY YOUR COFFEE
A group of alumni, all highly established in their respective
careers, got together for a visit with their old university
professor.
The conversation soon turned to complaints about the endless
stress of work and life in general. Offering his guests coffee, the
professor went into the kitchen and soon returned with a large pot
of coffee and an eclectic assortment of cups: porcelain, plastic, glass,
crystal - some plain, some expensive, some quite exquisite. Quietly
he told them to help themselves to some fresh coffee.
When each of his former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the
old professor quietly cleared his throat and began to patiently address
the small gathering.
"You may have noticed that all of the nicer looking cups were taken
up first, leaving behind the plainer and cheaper ones. While it is only
natural for you to want only the best for yourselves that is actually the
source of much of your stress-related problems."
He continued, "Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to
the coffee. In fact, the cup merely disguises or dresses up what we
drink.
What each of you really wanted was coffee, not a cup, but you
instinctively went for the best cups. Then you began eyeing each
other's cups. Now consider this:
Life is coffee. Jobs, money, and position in society are merely
cups. They are just tools to shape and contain Life, and the type
of cup we have does not truly define nor change the quality of the
Life we live.
Often, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the
coffee that God has provided us. God brews the coffee, but he does
not supply the cups. Enjoy your coffee!"
The happiest people don't have the best of everything; they just
make the best of everything they have.
So please remember:
Live simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
And remember - the richest person is not the one who has the most,
but the one who needs the least.