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 rich 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?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain.When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity?

Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can ‘ t go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you’re the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

You might want to send this message to those people who mean something to you (I JUST DID); to those who have touched your life in one way or another; to those who make you smile when you really need it; to those who make you see the brighter side of things when you are really down; to those whose friendship you appreciate; to those who are so meaningful in your life.

If you don’t send it, you will just miss out on the opportunity to brighten someone’s day with this message!

May we’ll all be COFFEE!!!!!!

Cheers – Steve

ps My mom sent this to me via email today and I have no idea the author….just felt it was important to share

This complex beverage contains more than 300 compounds, with caffeine the most studied and likely the most active. An estimated 80 percent of some population groups regularly consume coffee, to the tune of 33 million gallons a day.

Caffeine increases blood plasma epinephrine levels, which forms the basis for much of caffeine’s effect on the heart and blood vessel system. Caffeine increases the heart rate while blood flow to the liver decreases. Irregular heartbeats occur with greater frequency.

Even more significant is the flood of recent research revealing coffee’s ability to increase the blood level of the deposit factor in atherosclerosis – cholesterol. Atherosclerosis is the number one reason of death in Western society, being the primary contributor to heart disease and stroke, and cholesterol is the main culprit in this drama.

In both males and females, cholesterol increases with each cup of coffee consumed. A 9,043 – person study reported in 1988 a 0.5 milligram per deciliter cholesterol increase per cup per day. This is equivalent to a one percent increase in the risk of heart attack. A 2.49 – fold increase in atherosclerotic heart disease in men drinking five or more cups of coffee a day, in comparison to those who drank none.

Coffee also induces iron-deficiency anemia. Its tannins decrease iron absorption from an accompanying meal by 39 percent. This inhibitory effect on iron is dose-related and doubles when one drinks milk at the same meal. Tea inhibits iron absorption by 64 percent.

Blood pressure elevation with coffee intake occurs in both casual and chronic coffee consumers. Its regular ingestion raises diastolic blood pressure by 15 percent. This cannot be blocked by the calcium channel blockers commonly used for reducing hypertension.

Caffeine has also been shown to react with a wide variety of unrelated compounds, causing them to become mutagenic, or likely causes of cancer. More than two cups of coffee per day are linked to a 2.5-times greater risk of colon cancer than for those who drink less. Caffeine induces a body loss of one milligram of calcium via the urine for every 10 milligrams of caffeine consumed. This implicates long-term caffeine intake a contributor to osteoporosis.

Caffeine decreases blood flow to the brain for up to 90 minutes and alters the brain’s electrical activity. These changed electrochemical responses also cause “caffeinism”: hypochondriacs, anxiety, headache, sleeplessness, depression, withdrawal symptoms, and rambling flow of thought and speech. Such symptoms appear in addition to restlessness, tremulousness, irritability, hyperactivity, dry mouth, irregular eye movements, visual spots, and the muscle aches commonly seen at lower doses. These result in part because of caffeine’s interaction with gamma-amino butyric acid and another compound of coffee that is an opiate receptor blocker, which together reduce the effects of the body’s natural anxiety-relieving mechanisms.

Coffee ingestion causes a consistent drop in lower esophageal sphincter pressure, thus allowing reflux of acid into the lower esophagus, a common cause of heartburn. Some have touted caffeine as a cryogenic aid to endurance athletes through increased blood-free fatty acids. But recent studies have brought this idea into question.

For mothers-to-be, coffee decreases blood flow to the placenta by 25%, thus reducing fetal oxygen supply. One cup of strong coffee a day, or three cups of weak coffee can nearly double a pregnant woman’s chance of spontaneous abortion.

Coffee and tea are detrimental. We would do well, both mentally and physically, to refrain from this chemical.