中英文对照哲理小故事

上帝的咖啡

一群事业有成的同学回去看望他们的大学老师，很快他们开始抱怨生活和工作中的压力。老师去厨房为客人们准备咖啡，回来时端着一大壶咖啡和各式各样的杯子，这些杯子有、塑料的、玻璃的、水晶的，有的普通，有的昂贵，有的精致，老师让大家随意享用。等每个人都端起一杯咖啡，老师说话了：你们注意到吗：所有好看昂贵的杯子都被用了，剩下那些朴素便宜的杯子。你们都只想要最好的，这很正常，这恰恰是你们的问题和压力所在。杯子不会让咖啡的质量变得更好，很多时候，只是让它变得更贵一些，甚至，有时候，让人忽略了到底我们在喝什么。你们真正想要的其实是咖啡，不是杯子，但你们有意识地去拿那些最好的杯子，随后开始打量其他人手上的杯子。

生活好比咖啡，工作、金钱和社会地位都只是杯子，只是生活的容器，而我们拥有的杯子既无法定义、也无法改变我们生活的质量。有时，由于我们只关心杯子，我们甚至不能够好好品尝上帝赐予我们的咖啡。

上帝冲泡了咖啡，不是杯子。享受你们的咖啡吧。最快乐的人们并不是因为他们拥有最好的一切，他们只是把一切当成最好。简单地活着。仁慈地爱着。深深地关心着。友善地说话。其他的，就留给上帝吧。

God's 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 -, 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 were 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.

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 God has provided us."

God brews the coffee, not the cups.......... Enjoy your coffee! "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.

Leave the rest to God.