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The Coffee Cup

Friday, 13 July 2007

A congregant sent this to me today. Perhaps you’ve seen it…but it was new to me and I’d like to share it with you. Enjoy!

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.

He told the group to help themselves to the coffee. When all the former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: “If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken, 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 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 the Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us. God brews the coffee, not the cups…..Enjoy your coffee!”

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. You are the miracle, my dear family and friends, your life either shines a light – or casts a shadow.

2 Comments leave one →
  1. Saturday, 14 July 2007 12:23 am

    Nice! I have not seen that before!
    Good luck with tefilot tonight – as the spouse and a working (outside the home) mom, I feel your pain 😉
    Shabbat Shalom

  2. Frume Sarah permalink
    Saturday, 14 July 2007 12:50 am

    Thanks!!

    Sadly, as I will blog later, I’ve been sidelined with bronchitis and am sick in bed. PC is rushing home to help the sitter with the kids so that I can actually stay in bed.

    Gut shabbos!

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