Monday, December 11, 2006

I Love the Coffee!!!

One of my teacher friends sent this email to me the other day. It happened to be on a day when I was a little down. I was struggling to remain positive, and was looking at only the down falls of my day rather than seeing the good I had accomplished. Also every time we get together we often talk shop (Kat's term I stole it), when we do this often times we are reflecting on our struggles more so then our great adventures. This story hit me just right that day so I hope it also is encouraging to you as well.


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 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 eying each others 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. "The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

Becky's Interview

Sara Noel was nice enough to send this to me. It is an interview that Becky was asked to take part in. It was given to me about a week ago and I am sorry it took this long to make the blog.

Becky was interviewed by this expat website http://www.xpatloop.com/interviews_list_detail.php?id=261