A Lesson From Coffee Cups

Someone sent this to me the other day and I thought you would enjoy it!

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 and assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to 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 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, the 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 on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee."The happiest people don't have the best of everything... they make the best of everything. Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.

Be careful how you spend your life, and enjoy the coffee.

PJ<><