Enjoy the Coffee

I received this email from a colleague in the fire service. I usually don't even bother to read forwards because I get so many of them, and usually most of them are repeats of ones I have already read. Because this individual never forwards anything, I decided to read it. It's a really great life lesson and I wanted to share it with you. After the you read it, I will add more of my thoughts:

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups made of Porcelain, Plastic, Glass, Crystal, Some ordinary looking, Some expensive, Some exquisite.

He told them to help themselves to hot coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in their hands, the professor
Said:

"If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap looking ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and worse, you were eyeing each other's cups.

Now if life is coffee , then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Some times, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in
It."

So folks, don't let the cups drive you..., enjoy the coffee instead.

*******
Several people that I know are going through some pretty difficult circumstances in their lives right now. These are people that I admire for the outward appearances. They hold themselves well. They present themselves well. They dress well. Sometimes I am a little envious at what they 'appear' to have. But when you get past their outside appearances and demeanors, there is turmoil and pain. Their coffee cup is beautiful but their coffee isn't so good. Now don't get me wrong, these are good people that try to lead moral lives, it's just right now they are going hardships.

I guess my point would be, just because someone is pretty on the outside doesn't mean they don't go through the tough stuff in life. Many times we admire the pretty people because we assume they lead perfect lives when in reality they have problems too. We need to stop putting so much emphasis on the presentation and put more onto actions. We also need to start looking at our coffee.