Ok, so we all have friends that forward us emails about life, perspective, tasteless jokes, funny jokes, and the email that if you don't forward on you will have bad luck for the rest of your life. Every once in a while though, you actually get some good ones. The 2 following are from emails that I recieved -

A young woman went to her mother and talked to her about he life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggeling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the frist she placed carrots, in the 2nd she placed eggs and in the last she placed ground up coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes, she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled out the coffee and palced it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter she asked "Tell me what you see." "Carrots, eggs and coffee", she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. she did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take and egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted it's rich aroma. The daughter them asked, "What does it mean, mother?"
Her mother explained that each of these objects had faxed the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile, it's thin outer shell had protected it's liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, it's inside became hardened.
The coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, the had changed the water. "Which are you?", she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Think of this, which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trialsare their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, and egg or a coffee bean?

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

I think that we would like to all be the coffee, but I think a lot of us are eggs and carrots right now. All we can do it choose to grow from the things that happen to us. It does nothing to live the same mistakes again. And now onto #2 -

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken, probably more then once, and it's harder everytime. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt, because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.

don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
-Anonymous-