“I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.”
Agatha Christie
“So what are you going to write about?” my friend wondered when I told her I had started a blog. “I’m going to write a public journal” I said rather quickly, checking her facial reactions to see if she’d approve. “Hum. Interesting”, was her response and we quickly moved on to another subject.
My friend Amy showed a little more excitement and offered a suggestion. “Why don’t you journal a year about following your gut instincts.” She had all kinds of ideas and for a moment, I thought for certain that a journal about following my intuitive instincts would be my blog direction. After all, her new book entitled, Life Your Way labeled me an expert on the subject. (My supposed area of “expertise?” will be another blog subject.) However, as time progressed, I realized I had originally set out to create a blog with the hopes to inspire and support the “Coffee Bean Phenomenon.”
You see, it takes courage to live life fully. Well…to live life at all on most days. There may be a few lucky souls out there, but I have yet to meet anyone who has escaped hardships. Everyone I know has either experienced collapsed dreams, the death of a loved one or has had heavy stone doors shut in their faces and was unable to find that proverbial open window. It’s in these moments of life, after the initial shock, embarrassment and grief have had their way with us that the Coffee Bean Phenomenon comes in.
The Phenomenon is a playful term I’ve given to an e-mail I received not long ago from my writer friend, Deb. You may have heard of it. It’s an analogy about our response to life and how we choose to take action. The analogy goes something like this: When things get tough and we are in the moment/day/year of boiling waters, we can either be the carrot and turn soft, the egg and turn hard or we can be the coffee bean. We all know the soothing aromatic flavor a coffee bean produces when it’s placed in boiling water. It can’t change the fact that it’s been placed in boiling water but it works with and not against it adversity, changing its surroundings in a positive way.
It’s true. We don’t always get to make a choice in the challenges life deals us, but we do get to choose how we respond to them. I hope to provide an escape for those who are at the crossroads of a carrot (turning to mush and giving up) or at the door of an egg (hard, bitter, angry) and jolt them into a room of robust flavors. Life sucks sometimes but we’re here and we might as well make the best of it. I’m not advocating that one should never grieve; we’ve been given tear ducts and emotions for a reason. But when you’re ready to come up for air, I hope that my tousled observations can be the open window you’ve been searching for, giving you the will, the courage, and the power to make rich, sweet and smooth surroundings.
So what will it be? Deb stated she’d prefer the Italian Roast experience. I’ll go for that and throw in a little frothed milk and chocolate. What flavor will your phenomenon be?
A special thanks to Amy Wood, friend and author of Life Your Way. Thanks also go to the super awesome baristas at Bard Coffee in Portland, ME.
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