[StBernard] Hot Chocolate.doc

[Westley Annis]

	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 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.
	



mah