Hot Chocolate
This short story is not original to me and what I have done is fiddled with it a bit to illustrate a point about our relationships. Look carefully at your relationship. Are you drinking the chocolate the other person has to offer or are you complaining about the way in which they present what they have to offer – the cup!?
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 and how too often their relationships were not fulfilling. 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. This is what we do all too often. The cup that you’re drinking from adds NOTHING to the quality of the hot chocolate. 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: What Life and what your relationship offer you is the hot chocolate. Your partner can only offer you the cup that they have and it may not be the cup that you feel you either need or deserve. However, unless you create it so, the cup your partner presents does not define, nor change the quality of the chocolate they have to offer. By focussing our attention on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate. Decide. Which is more important the chocolate or the cup?
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!
Posted on July 21st, 2008 by christopher
Filed under: Uncategorized
Hello Christopher, what a wonderful opportunity you have given for people to share with you. The above article on hot chocolate is so very pertinent in today’s society where people are so torn between what they say and how their actions very often negate the very wisdom of their utterances. Shock- shock horror when the realisation sinks in that the focus has been on the cup and not the contents!Once again it is the attitude towards the cup being half full or half-empty that this article calls to mind. I have personally discovered that by practicing gratitude on a daily basis, one begins to focus on all that is fabulous and exciting in life and what once was perceived as negative, now becomes simply another of life’s challenges to be tackled with passion and excitement and a can-do attitude. I could probably write pages, but I leave that to another time. I enjoy the chocolate. A jam jar will serve me well.
“To empower people to respond creatively to the challenges of life and to remind them that collectively we can achieve more”- The Rainbow Project-
The concept of the message is so true. I have been feeling very sorry for myself and very self centered and not loved enough. I have been so busy looking at the cup, not the contence.
Thank you for bringing home the message,
in love and light, Rinie.