coffee | Thinking Through My Lens

I’m definitely feeling the poetic struggle as I reach mid-month. My mind is on my students and figuring out how to support them in this distance learning emergency. I’m housebound with little outside inspiration. My neighborhood is nice–but it really isn’t evoking poetic thoughts right now.

So instead…I turn to thoughts of the coffee I drink every morning. The coffee I crave…want…need… And I know it’s not about a caffeine addiction, I switched to decaf more than a decade ago. So today’s poem is an ode…to decaf.

Ode to my Decaf

I swim in its depths

the warm, dark steamy whirls

of decaffeinated comfort

earthy aroma

that spirals

from my mug directly

into my nostrils

steaming open my brain

loosening thoughts

opening the doors

to today

the whir of the bean grinder

echoes

the drip drip drip

a tympanic symphony

within the glass carafe

I come up for breath

wrapping my hands

around the ceramic

warming

from the inside out

for me

it’s not the caffeine

it’s the coffee

®Douillard

When is it worth it to fly halfway across the state for a Saturday meeting? Up at 3:45am, driving before the sun has even begun to think about peeking over the horizon, at the airport waiting for a flight before my regular wake up time.

Arriving well before the meeting time–because airlines work on their schedules, not yours. Searching for coffee on a sleepy college campus, a futile exercise on a Saturday morning.

(Luckily a Philz was right off campus…a pour over experience to fuel the day to come.)

When is it worth it to meet face-to-face? Our hunch was right. We needed to be human, to be real, to not only see and hear one another, but to feel each other too. We were in need of an opportunity for a shared experience AND spaces for those small, informal conversations that build relationships and enhance the more public and formal interactions.

A network is a network when we are connected. Today’s long day that spanned hundreds of miles of travel for our group was definitely worth it.

I’m filled with information, inspiration, and hope…for the network, for the work, for the future. And I feel the warmth and comfort of relationships reinforced, bonds renewed, and the tingle that will lead to growth and new ideas.

And the cherry on the top? I was able to change to the earlier flight home!