Life is like a cup of coffee

"Life is like a cup of coffee,
Sometimes bitter,
sometimes sweet,
Important thing is who you drink it with."


Niccolo Paganini, a colourful and gifted violinist of the nineteenth-century was standing before a packed house, playing through a difficult piece of music. A full orchestra surronded him with full support. Suddenly, one string on his violin snapped and hung gloriously down from his instrument.


Beads of perspiration popped out of his forehead. He frowned but continued to play, improvising beautifully. To the conductor's surprise, a second string broke. And shortly after, a third. Now there were three limpstrings dangling from Paganini's violin as the master performer completed the difficult composition on the remaining one string. The audience jumped to its feet and in good Italian fashion filled the hall with shouts of "Bravo! Bravo!"


As the applause died down, the violinist asked the people to sit back down. Even though they knew there was no way they could expect an encore, they quietly sank back to their seats. He held the violin up high for every one to see. He nodded at the conductor to begin the encore and then turned back to the crowd. With a twinkle in his eye, he smiled and shouted, "Paganini and one string!"


After that he placed the single-string Stradivarius beneath his chin and played the final piece on one string as the audience shook their heads in silent amazement.


Our life may very well be filled with troubles, worries,disappointments and what not. Frankly, we spent most of the time concentrating and fretting over the strings that snap, dangle and pop - the things that can't be changed!


Are you still agonizing over your snapped strings in life?
Is the one string that you are left with being played out of tune?
If so,
may I encourage you to look not back,
press on,
and start playing the single string again.


Let it yield a sweet,
winesome melody that the world needs so desperately.
You can if you will.