An Ode to Coffee

I am sitting here this morning, in my very quiet little boutique. The rain is falling by the bucket-full and I am sipping a Starbucks Pike's Place brew. I love coffee. I truly, honestly, deeply love coffee! I have coffee memories that go a long way back. The scent of hot coffee mingled with burned toast can transport me immediately to my grandmothers kitchen table. I can smell the coffee, brewing in the old fashioned kettle on her stove, and see her pouring it into her favorite brown cup...that smell comes with the sense of grandma's arms wrapped around me. There is the smell of church coffee...yes I really think it has it's own scent...that takes me to the church basement in the heart of Denver, where I spent my youngest years. There the coffee meant fellowship, comfort, and a certain kind of joy that comes from knowing you are loved from the inside out. Then there is that nasty coffee breath smell that puts me right back into 9th grade algebra with scary Mr. Kermit...must say, that smell makes me shudder!

I didn't start drinking coffee until I was in college and interning as a nursing student in the ER. Thelma taught me to love the taste of coffee. In the middle of the night, when all was quiet, and my body was sleepy, Thelma would go and brew a fresh pot of hazelnut coffee...and we would sit and sip and wait for the next ambulance call. Those nights were always extreme...complete silence and hot coffee, or complete chaos and cold cups of coffee forgotten on the desk. I learned to love coffee in those wee hours.

Now coffee is a staple in my world. I love the Saturday morning cup, sipped while reading the paper, and mapping out a family day. I love the cup at mom's house, when everyone else is still in bed, but we get up and sip and chat over that first quiet cup...and the coffee with dessert at my mother in laws...the perfect end to a fun, busy crazy day. There are the several cups shared with a dear friend, gossiping, and enjoying the sun on the porch, and the cup I have by myself...in a quiet moment of solitude and peace.

I am so excited to travel to the birthplace of coffee...to take part in a coffee ceremony, and to take my love of coffee to a whole new level...

SO my wish for you today is to take a little time for your cup- a -coffee...at home, at church, in your staff lounge, with a friend, or riding in the car...I am raising my mug to you!