Hot Chocolate

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 others 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!

H's note: This certainly explains a lot of my issues. I would have taken the widest cup that I could have wrapped both my hands around, much like the cup I have in my cupboard right now. I just continually gather things in my cup thinking that the more I have the better my life will be, when actually, I don't even need the literal hot chocolate that goes in the cup! Holding onto the cup with both hands also brings out the need to hold onto things, all the things that make me feel better temporally, but I don't need spiritually. I don't see any of this as being a good thing, but I also don't want to give up my big purple Tinkerbell mug. It sheads light on: weight problems, clutter in every room, the need not to insult people (gather all your friends into the big mug!), and probably a host of other things. I would have had no interest in drinking hot chocolate out of a dainty, china cup...no interest in things just because they are expensive and sought after. I realized this earlier today as I drove by an Inn that a friend recommended as a retreat for our last anniversary. It was swanky (for lack of a better word) to say the least, and not the least bit enticing to me. I like that about myself...my hot chocolate does not have to come in a fancy, stylish, or hip cup, it just as to be tasty. I like different flavors, brands, and sometimes with a little whip cream. Did you all get that I was talking about life just then?!