Smell the Coffee!

How great a time of year is this? You have to love it. Baseball season is on, (way to go Phils!!!). The NCAA final four is here. Next week is Masters week, (if you don’t know how I feel about that then read my blog from February, "Georgia on my Mind."). The NBA is winding up their season. (way to go Sixers!) Many junior hockey leagues have their playoffs in full gear. The USA Hockey Nationals and the NCAA frozen four are on as well, which you can watch online.(how great is technology now when a goofball like me can have a weekly blog and you can watch hockey games on the internet!!!) Most importantly, the NHL playoffs are right around the corner. My right thumb will be bleeding from hitting the remote…….After a long cold winter, there is nothing better than watching the NHL Playoffs and seeing the increased intensity and great battles.
All this to digest and then my good friend Gasper Paul sends me the following short story. Gasper is a person that really has a great outlook on life.

Life is Like a Cup of Coffee

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee. When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups have been taken up, 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. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, 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 coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. Savor the coffee, not the cups! The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly.

So while we are all watching sports and cheering for our teams the next few weeks, whether they win or lose, remember to enjoy the enhanced level of play that the playoffs give us and what a great time of year this is.

Enjoy the coffee…... :)