Potatoes, Eggs, and Coffee Beans

It was a quiet Sunday morning at TwoCents Restaurant & Café, the kind of morning where the smell of fresh croissants mingled with the low hum of jazz floating from the speakers. Delight sat by the counter, her face buried in her palms, a cold cup of latte by her side. Her father, Tobi Igbinedion, the chef and co-owner of the café, noticed her sighs between every few seconds. He had seen that sigh before—life was knocking, and Delight wasn’t sure she had the strength to answer. “Talk to me, Dee,” he said, wiping his hands on his apron. She looked up, eyes weary. “Dad, I’m just… tired. Tired of trying, tired of things falling apart. It’s like, every time I fix one thing, something else breaks.” Tobi smiled faintly and nodded. Without saying a word, he turned toward the kitchen. “Come,” he said. Delight followed him reluctantly, wondering if he was about to give another one of his TwoCents lessons. <img alt="" src="/media/inline_insight_image/IMG-20251007-WA0012.jpg"/> He filled three small pots with water and placed them on the stove. As the water began to boil, he dropped potatoes into the first pot, eggs into the second, and a handful of ground coffee beans into the third. Not a single word. Delight folded her arms, impatience written all over her face. The steam rose; the minutes dragged. After a while, he turned off the heat. Carefully, he scooped the potatoes into a bowl, the eggs into another, and poured the coffee into a cup. Then he turned to her. “What do you see?” “Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she replied flatly. “Good. Now touch the potatoes.” She did—and they were soft. “Break the egg.” She cracked it open; the inside was firm and hard. “Now taste the coffee.” The aroma alone made her smile. “It smells amazing,” she said. Tobi leaned on the counter and looked at her gently. “You see, all three went through the same boiling water—the same pressure, the same heat. But each reacted differently. The potato went in strong and came out weak. The egg went in fragile but came out tough inside. And the coffee beans—they did something different. They changed the water itself.” He paused, letting the thought sink in as the scent of coffee filled the café. “Life will always turn up the heat, Dee. But the question is—will you let it soften you, harden you, or transform you into something better?” Delight stared at the cup of coffee for a long moment, then smiled softly. “I think… I want to be the coffee.” Tobi chuckled. “Good choice. The world needs more people who can turn boiling water into something worth drinking.” <h3>--- </h3><h4>TwoCents Takeaway:</h4>Life will always bring the heat. What matters most isn’t what happens to you—but what happens within you. So… which one are you?🥔 Potato?🥚 Egg?☕ Coffee Bean? --- Until next time — stay wise, stay grounded, stay brewing. ☕

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