The desire to write grows with writing...

I thought I would share a story that was told at a eulogy I attended not so long ago. This story said a lot to me because I found many ways to link it to my own life. Here goes...

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversations soon turned into complaints about stress in their work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went into 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 of the students had a cup of coffee in hand the professor said "If you all noticed the nice looking cups were taken up, leaving behind all 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 hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was a cup of coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing 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 God has provided us"

Live simply...live generously, care deeply and speak kindly.

[contributed by the Carmack family]

Peace...