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 an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselve to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup 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 but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.  What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.

Now, if LIFE is COFFEE, then the jobs, money, and position in society are the cups.  They are just tools to hold and contain LIFE, but the quality of LIFE doesn't change.  Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

So, don't let the cups drive you…
ENJOY THE COFFEE INSTEAD.

*~*~*

a peek at mischarmed's cup of coffee
remarked @ 27.04.2006

I happen to be a recovering caffeine addict for the past month. I forced myself for this rehab because caffeine wakes me for the next 30-60 mins but makes me feel super sleepy afterwards.  Coffee became my milk.  Every time we went to Starbucks before, I would yawning like hell by the time I got in the van to take me home.  So, it's time for a wake-up call. And I guess, it was part of my lenten sacrifice - give up something I desperately wanted. I missed starbucks frappe. 

My addiction to caffeine is perhaps just the same as my unsatiable hunger to live life the way I want to live it. I guess, this is just the main reason why I try to exhaust everything from where I stand, and demand that it give back to me what I deserve.  I take simple pleasure in the serene nightscene, the passionate sunset, and the glowing sunrise. I savor the peaceful sleep, the happy cheerios of friends and family, and the fact that I can walk the corridor without having to avoid people I know.  It's a pretty quiet and simple life that I live, and I enjoy each breathe of air in it.

This simple living does not mean that I never crave for anything beyond my vista. I did, I do and I always will.  I believe that this "want" makes the play more exciting.  I read or heard somewhere that man should always have his fantasy, and when that fantasy is reached, its as if he has no more sense in living on moving on.  I really had to wonder on that idea, and that made me think - maybe its the "want", my "want".  But I never thought that when that "want" is reached, I couldn't think of a new "want".  Life is too complex to contain all possibilities in one equation, that's why infinity was made. So why must the "want" be subject to a stop?  Change is the only permanent thing is this world.

Over that idea, of my constant change of "want" and simple living, I had my share of opportunities that needed a life-and-death decision of moving to the left or right side of the pitchfork.  It's not an easy task, I tell you.  The every moment attempt to distinguish which way to go to. Shall I accept the good offer, or stay at the company waiting?  Shall I buy a kilo of fish today, or shall I just buy 1 piece and buy the next when I need them?  Will I go to work today, or would I just call in sick?  My decisions took a lot of thinking, pondering, considerations - money, wealth, fame, career. These are my cups.  More often than not, I wish I didn't have a decision to make, but reality check - I'd rather make my own decision than let someone else decide for me. I don't believe in fate, or destiny, I'm sorry.  I came here, and I live here based on how I do it (Um, existentialist? or whatever…). I may hear things that they don't agree with me, that's fine. I'm open-minded. I respect people's views, and would appreciate respect from them as well.  But this is what I learned, the best thing in life that I have experienced, and continually experiencing - a peaceful sleep. Having decided all things I've passed on, offers I declined, decision that I've made, I can tell you that my coffee still tastes just the way I like it to be.  I don't mind much the money, the position, the career.  Really. I am enjoying my cup of coffee now, and I am getting just enough caffeine on it to make the journey.