Coffee or the Cup

Greetings:

In addition to subscribing to at least 100 e-zines (I know it is an addiction) I also receive a few hard copy newsletters in snail mail. One of my favorites comes from my friend Marlys Nash with The Nash Group. Marlys owns a Mortgage company and the name of her newsletter is The Lender Line. For more info on Marlys you can check her out at www.mortgagelenderforlife.com. (I just noticed you can get her newsletter on-line as well)

In her December newsletter Marlys included a story that I truly enjoyed and thought I would share with you.

Coffee or the Cup

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 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 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."

Author is unknown

As I was searching to find the author of this story I found a blog that I couldn't resist. On the blog is the "Coffee Cup Project." People send in a picture of their favorite coffee mug with a story of why it is their favorite. I have no clue why anyone would do this, maybe just because they can. Fun to look at all the cups!

Remember it is the coffee, not the cup!

Here's to Action,

Rachelle