Good morning friends, I hope you are having a great week. Are you taking time to enjoy the season, the lights, the Christmas movies, time with friends and family, baking, and whatever else makes your should sing at this time of year. I am doing all of that and more, this is my favorite time of the year and I do not want to miss anything.
I have seen this story floating around for over 10 years, every couple of years a friend sends me a copy. This week it showed up in an email again so I thought I would share it with you because not only do I love hot chocolate but I love good advice.
The Wisdom in Hot Chocolate
By Anonymous
A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups – porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite – telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.
When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said:
“Notice that 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. The cup that you’re drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, 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 hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us. God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups.
The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.
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I hope that you have a wonderful day friends, and that you enjoy a hot chocolate today.
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It’s so funny you wrote about the cups. I too have a “large” assortment of cups. Some are so fancy they look like royalty, some are homey and look like a hug from Mama, some are whimsical, gifts from grandkids. It seems the one I choose my cups according to my mood or what I’m hoping for that day. I find that most often I choose what I call my “comfortable” cup. It round, sort of like a ball and has blue wavy tones on it like ocean waves. It fits my hands and relaxes me. This was such a good post today. I’m new here. I found you an Brenda’s blog Cozy Little House. Glad to be here. It will be interesting to see what God has planned today. Have a blessed one.
Sandra, thank you for coming to visit and to comment. I love Brendas blog! I love cups, and I have a ton of them, I like to pick them to suit my mood but like you I almost always go back to the same one because it is whimsical and makes me smile.
What a lovely post. Pinned!
Fantastic post and story.
So very true
Thank you Cindy
Thank you Libbie!
There is nothing like a cup of hot chocolate at Christmas and all winter long.
I could not agree more Paula!
Quite a wise story.
Thank you William, I hope you are well.
Such great wisdom! And I love the roundup of hot cocoa things!
Thank you! I love hot chocolate.
Very wise! I find myself falling into the luxury mindset trap as well – if something is expensive it must therefore be better. It’s a silly example, but I do this with candles…but the truth is that I enjoy “cheap and cheerful” candles as well!
Amy it is funny that you mentioned candles because as far as they go I am the exact opposite. I hate to pay a lot for candles, in fact some of the best smelling candles I have purchased are from Aldi, they scent the entire house. I cannot bring myself to spend $68 on a candle.
I was thinking more about this today as I was cleaning house 🙂
It’s definitely a Buddhist point of view. Elizabeth, I think you’re Catholic as well (I am too) – it’s interesting that the Catholic church has always maintained that luxury and beauty can glorify God – it’s why our churches can be ornate – the idea being that the beauty and luxury in the churches serve to show that we worship God with beautiful surroundings and that He deserves churches that exemplify beauty (additionally, the gold of the chalice, for example) and that beauty can elevate our spirits to better worship God – I know most religous traditions don’t believe this, but Catholics always have.
Anyway, just a thought I had while mopping 🙂
Amy you are absolutely right! I never thought about it like that. I am Catholic and it is interesting because all of the churches that I attended as a child were just as you described. When I moved to the East Coast all of the Catholic Churches were modern and all of them reminded me of space ships, there was nothing that I was familiar with, honestly I did not like it. I am a traditionalist, and I do not like change. I realize that I am not at church for the building and the surrounding but I would rather be in a beautiful church with statues of saints rather than a stark plain church. I know that some people like that I do not.
Stay safe in the storm.