What is in Our Cup?

We’ve all heard the old saying about if the cup is half empty or half full. I’ve also read a bit of a different version and that is it doesn’t matter if your cup is half empty or half full. The point is that your cup is always refillable.

I doubt that whoever wrote about the cup was thinking of fame or wealth. Perhaps, instead, the author was speaking of things like forgiveness, joy, compassion, concern for others, kindness, helpfulness. Or was it anger, greed, bitterness, revenge?

Not long ago I read a short thought-provoking paragraph about this very idea.

It read: You are standing with a cup of coffee in your hand and someone bumps you and the coffee is spilled. Actually it doesn’t matter if your cup held coffee or tea or soda. It’s that the cup held something and was spilled out.

That cup can be compared to your life. No one’s life is filled with all good or all bad. Or lots of problems or days that see no trouble. It’s filled with a mixture of both.

When everything is going good we’re happy. We feel good about everyone in and everything about our life. But then along comes a bad spell. Perhaps a loss of employment, our car needs an expensive repair, we receive a difficult medical diagnosis, our child becomes ill, a loved one or close friend dies.

What spills out of us? Our cup, so to speak.

Is it acceptance, determination to overcome a difficult time, faith that all will work out for the good, hope that a solution will be found? Or does anger at our trouble, a feeling of unfairness, despair, come tumbling out?

Another thing to consider is how what comes falling out of our cup not only affects how we handle what made our cup spill but what the way we handle it says about us. Will we be perceived as a person who, although is having a tough time, manages to get through it and come out the better for it? Or will we be seen as someone who gives in to what has happened, blames everything on something or someone else, and lets another person or persons solve our problem for us?

It really all comes down to what is in our cup as to what comes spilling out when it is jostled. It’s up to us what we fill our cup with.