From Tammy Bosler...I really liked it

As part of my training(Tammy and I trained with the same teacher-LG), I am studying the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. A discussion about an idea in the Sutras came up recently when one of the other students in the training sent this great parable to me:
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?
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 fl avor. 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.
So what does this have to do with the Sutras? Sutras II-33, “Vitarkabadhane pratipaksabhavanam”, which translate to, basically “When there is clouded thinking, reframing the way you look at a situation may help to produce clarity.”
In the wonderful parable, the coffee doesn’t simply respond to the water, it alters the water itself. If I am the coffee grounds going into the struggle of boiling water, as time progressed, and I am sitting in the boiling water, the situation would be changing. Because of my actions, as a coffee bean (releasing the chemicals to merge with the water), the boiling water is reshaped into boiling coffee - for all of you coffee drinkers, you know that is a much better situation than boiling water.
According to my teacher, you are not who you think you are when afflicted thoughts arise. In the case of the coffee beans, they went into the water thinking they were beans, when, in fact, they were the impetus for a great cup of coffee. If it wasn’t for going into the boiling water, their true purpose would not have been realized. I like this parable because the coffee beans also left their imprint when turning something harsh into something great. That, and I like coffee