Charles Adams
06-26-2006, 10:52 AM
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. They were made of porcelain, plastic, glass, and crystal -- some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He told them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:" If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap 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 were eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee. Jobs, money and position in society are the cups ?- but they are just tools to hold and contain Life. They do not change the quality of Life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup which contains it, we fail to enjoy the great coffee God has provided."
The moral of this story is: Don't be obsessed with the cups ? enjoy the coffee instead!
:D
Offering his guests coffee, the Professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups. They were made of porcelain, plastic, glass, and crystal -- some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite. He told them to help themselves to the coffee.
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:" If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap 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 were eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this: Life is the coffee. Jobs, money and position in society are the cups ?- but they are just tools to hold and contain Life. They do not change the quality of Life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup which contains it, we fail to enjoy the great coffee God has provided."
The moral of this story is: Don't be obsessed with the cups ? enjoy the coffee instead!
:D