Enjoy The Coffe, Not The Cup

Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

“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 – porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling 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 have been taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups… And then you began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.”

Well I just found out this amazing story about life. First time I saw this on video, but then I read this again and get the essence of it. It’s kinda simple metaphor to describe what’s important in our life. It’s written there that life is the coffee, it’s the one we want to enjoy. But sometimes, yeah, we always putting a lot of matter on the cup to enjoy the coffee. Coffee is the life, the cup is just a tool to hold and contain the coffee. The cup symbolize the jobs, money, and everything that we care to have, but that doesn’t define the quality of our life.

Take it this way. If we buy an expensive stoneware or glassware, we will keep them in a very safe and secure place, even trouble us just to take it out from the cabinet. But the plastic cup, the cheap one, or just say, the regular one, we just put it anywhere, reachable. Then comes the time we’re about to pass out because of a heavy workload and less sleep we take. One of the solution is yeah, coffee! Then the problem got bigger, we want to use that expensive stoneware, the fancier the better. But then we see that stoneware is stored safely in a cabinet, locked up like Davy Jones’ Heart. Difficult to take. Water’s boiling, coffee is out, perhaps spend 10 or 15 minutes just to take out that stoneware. 15 minutes water is already warm, not boiled and it’s no way a coffee will spread out its aroma in warm water. After minutes of struggle, coffee’s done! But again, we already tired and fed up just taking out the cup. But what if we just use the first cup we see, then the water is still boiled, breathe the aroma of the coffee, and feel invigorated and ready to get back to work, just use the simple cup and enjoy the coffee right away. Here, from this out of sense metaphor, the important thing is to enjoy the coffee, not enjoying the expensive stoneware cup. Enjoy what’s inside the cup, not about the cup.

After I read this again and again, it really touch deep into me. Sometimes I want a lot of things, a lot… this and that, got this long wish list of things I gotta have. Those things become an ambition later on. Ambition leads me to stress and hectic at work in order to reach those goals and ambition. After that, I’m far away from enjoying the quality of my life cause I’m thinking a lot about what are the things that can improve my life, but again, those things are just the cups. I’m also looking at some people that work day and night, pursuing a lot of things in career, mostly money, most of them don’t get along well with their family. I’m not judging that it is wrong to pursue a career, I want to have a great career, good life, make a living and stuff, but I still want to enjoy the coffee. I want to grab those ambitions but on the other hand, I still got a life, which is short, to enjoy

Each person’s coffee tastes different from another. But what people want out of coffee? I bet it’s the invigorating feeling of coffee that make us feel alive. Some like it sweet, some like it sour, some like it bitter, or some even like it with dregs. But it’s all comes back to enjoy our own coffee. The coffee is us to make, and also us to enjoy. There’s a saying, the grass is greener on the other side, but not every coffee on the other cup is suits with us. If we used to a coffee with sweets, we won’t like the coffee with sour taste from other people’s cup even though it seems good. And what cup people are using is up to them, and is up to us. But at some point, also comes the time when we are looking at other people’s cup, oh it’s so expensive, it’s so fancy, I want that cup! But that doesn’t mean that person have a good quality of coffee. Perhaps that person just pretend to enjoy the coffee, but he/she just want to show to people his/her cup, that’s torturing I guess.

The thing is, the coffee is what matters to us, not the cup. The coffee is us, it’s us to make, and it’s also us to enjoy. We’re keep thinking about having everything to be the best for our life. Expensive cup sometimes hides what’s inside of it, perhaps inside of the cup is an expired coffee, or a false-made coffee or anything that’s not good and not for us to enjoy, but we keep thinking about just having the best cup for us. What’s an expensive cup means without a good and hot coffee inside of it? Perhaps the coffee will be left out cold, and there will be just a cold coffee, and nobody want to enjoy that kinda coffee.

I’m trying to bring this story to practice for my life. Cause sometimes I only thinking about a lot of fancy things, the best thing for my life. And then after that I start thinking how to make those things come true, I start bringing my own stresses and complaints just to make those things true. I think it’s also about to be thankful for everything that I have right now, cause for me now my coffee is the best coffee, still hot, still enjoyable, and I’m savoring every sip of it. And the other thing is about to be patient in waiting a lot of good things to happen in my life. Because I do believe God always provides me a lot of good things, some are given already, some are still waiting for the right time for me to handle those good things. So, let’s enjoy every bit of our life without thinking what we have and what we don’t have, and be thankful for what we have right now while we keep being patient in waiting for good things, even greater things, cause I do believe that good things will come in time.

By the way, this is the best one:

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.”

http://www.spiritual-short-stories.com/spiritual-short-story-106-Life+is+Like+a+Cup+of+Coffee.html

Advertisement