True Love of Coffee

I was listening to the sounds of laughter, voices trying to entertain my thoughts as I wandered down the corridors of life in the city. I found myself browsing through the daily colors I was seeing, the attitude of the mysterious faces I passed by, and the mixture of opinions that were not my own.

So many thoughts. Beautiful, rampant, evolving. I didn’t know where each question began, or where each answer took me.

I sat down in a passive little cafe and ordered a mocha from a girl who didn’t know what life really had to offer. I could see it in her eyes- that her life was riding alongside of the recipes she muddled through, as if each beat of her own heart could be ordered with room for cream or tossed into a cup of ice… chilled to the bone.

I sat quietly in the corner booth, slowly sipping on my warm drink and finding myself slightly lost in sweet decadence… pondering the people that stood in line and patiently waited for something to add flavor to a rather boring morning.

Each and every one was different, from the professional man dressed in a two thousand dollar suit who checked his watch fifteen times to the young mother who held her infant son snug against her chest.

Unfortunately for them, the flavor they were seeking in a morning beverage could never bridge the gap they were seeking to fill. They needed life, raw and uncut, with fear and love, passion and loss, the need to embrace every single opportunity with appreciation and yearning.

Thirty-seven people later I had witnessed what felt like every flavor of the world.

I thought to myself… “what do I know?”

Definitely not everything. I know the flavor, I know the basic steps, but I do not know how the young girl across the counter is going to create my experience. I do not if I will sit alone in the corner booth or if I will gladly smile at the wonderfully interesting man sitting next to me and strike up a conversation about his war-torn briefcase or the way he sips his own morning experience this day.

I do know, that rather than leave this day in peaceful and inquisitive enlightenment… that I will instead walk up to the counter and order a black cup of coffee, that I will pause for a moment, and buy the next three people in line a cup of whatever they feel they need.

In life- the lesson is simple for me. The best things are free and the truest cost is only your perception.

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I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 14th, 2007 at 4:03 am and is filed under Daily thoughts, Author's Favorites. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.