提 要

生活無法一帆風順，碰到不順心的事時，有時會憂慮、憤怒，不敢面對而生恐懼，如此不但於事無補，甚至愈來愈糟；如果改變心態，將「屢戰屢敗」的現實改為「屢敗屢戰」的信念，逆境反而是基礎訓練，順利成功就不遠了。

Mary was a young girl. She had a major problem that she got annoyed with everything. She felt bad about everything and just always carried a negative thinking. She used to get angry as well as got frightened of everything. She developed all these negative aspects suddenly. One day she felt she was so miserable and requested help from her dad.

She told him that if she was able to manage and solve a problem, another one followed quickly and it got repeated. Her father consoled her and took her to the kitchen.

He asked Mary to take a potato, an egg and two spoonfuls of tea leaves. Mary was surprised, and asked her father "do you want me to cook?"

Her father denied. He then took three vessels and poured one cup of water in each vessel. Each vessel was placed on the stove. Once the water started to boil, he dropped potato in a vessel, egg in the second one and tea leaves in the third one.

Mary was totally annoyed and asked him, why would her father do those stupid things? He asked her to wait for a few more minutes with patience.

The impatient daughter managed to wait for around 15 minutes.

The Father removed the potato from the pot and placed in a plate and did the same with eggs. He filtered the tea decoction using a cup.

Now, he placed the two plates, one with the potato and the other with the egg, and the cup of tea in front of Mary.

He asked Mary, "What do you see?"

She said, "Potato, Egg and a cup of tea!"

"No, you are wrong," said the father, "Look at it closely then answer me."

Mary replied the same.

"Now touch it and reply me, The potato was cooked and was so soft, the egg was boiled hard and the tea carried the nice aroma."

Mary couldn't find the correct answer.

Her father replied, "The potato was so hard and strong before they were boiled; now they turned soft and smooth. Also, the egg was too delicate but after boiling it became too hard. Sip the tea, it is delicious!"

Mary asked, "What does it mean? I don't understand!"

"Each object responded differently to water." her father replied, "That is how you have to be?"

"Each object was put under the same kind of circumstance, faced similar adversity, but reacted differently. The potato, when put in boiling water, became very weak. The crumbled egg became very hard, when we put in boiling water. And the tea leaves are unique. It changed the water itself, giving it unique flavour! It gave something new."

Mary finally understood that she could create something new and unique even when she experienced adversity.

解 說

瑪麗是個年輕女孩。她有個大問題，幾乎任何事情都會激怒她，她對一切都消極地往壞處想。憤怒的同時，她也會感到恐懼，就這樣，她持續沉浸在負面情緒中。有一天，她為自己感到悲慘，向爸爸求助。

她告訴爸爸，即使她努力地解決了一個問題，另一個問題緊接著又重複發生。爸爸安慰她，並把她帶進了廚房。

他要求瑪麗拿出馬鈴薯，雞蛋和兩湯匙茶葉。瑪麗很驚訝地問爸爸：「你要我煮什麼嗎？」

她的父親說：「不是。」然後，他拿出三個容器，在每個容器倒一杯水、放在爐子上，水開始沸騰時，他分別在容器中放進馬鈴薯、雞蛋和茶葉。

已經非常火大的瑪麗問爸爸，為什麼要做這些愚蠢的事？他請她耐心地等幾分鐘。

非常不耐煩的女兒強忍著等了十五分鐘。

父親從鍋中取出馬鈴薯，放在盤子上，雞蛋也比照辦理，然後取出杯子過濾茶葉。

接著，他把分別盛著馬鈴薯與雞蛋的盤子、一杯茶放在瑪麗的面前。

他問瑪麗：「妳看到了什麼？」

她說：「馬鈴薯雞蛋和一杯茶！」

「不，妳錯了，」父親說，「看仔細些，然後回答我。」

瑪麗還是一樣的回答。

「現在，碰觸它們再回答我，馬鈴薯煮過了，變得非常柔軟，雞蛋煮了之後變硬，茶則有迷人的香氣。」

瑪麗想不出什麼是「正確的答案」。

她的父親說：「煮之前，馬鈴薯原本厚重堅硬，現在變得鬆軟；同樣的，雞蛋原本柔弱的一碰就碎，但煮了之後變得堅韌又有彈性；嘗嘗這茶，很可口的！」

瑪麗問：「這是什麼意思？我不明白！」

「每個物品經過水的反應不同。」她的父親說：「妳的變化會是什麼？」

「每個物品面臨類似的困境，會有不同的反應，硬馬鈴薯經過沸水變弱；易碎雞蛋經過沸水則變得堅固。茶葉更獨特。它改變了水的本質，賦予它獨特的風味，它創作了新的東西！」

瑪麗終於明白，當遭遇挫折時，她可以放棄負面情緒，挑戰逆境、愈挫愈勇，甚至創造新的人生。