Community Coffee

In my dreams, I am always starting at a coffee shop with my pen scribbling to fill blank pages. That's the ideal way to start a day, though for me it is only a Saturday that I am normally able to do that, and sometimes Sunday later in the morning. When I travel, that is basically what every day looks like, though. After breakfast and getting ready, it's straight to a coffee shop for coffee and journal time. It is many times my favourite part of the day - writing, reflecting, drinking coffee, planning, resting. All the while fueling up for the day ahead.

It is truly a gift to be able to visit and be immersed in a culture other than my own, and to me that extends to be as much a local as I can, seeking out the beauty of the details, the nuances or a neighborhood. It requires slowing down, and paying careful attention to each thing. I like to look for the details, noticing, observing, and writing about them from a prospective of gratitude and appreciation.

There is always much to look for with that attitude. I seek to feel the presence of a place all while appreciating the true nature of it. That place has so much to tell - why it is what it is, where it came from, why it has been shaped by certain histories. I come with the perspective of finding out its story. Wisdom of the past is there to be discovered along the way.

When I travel in Europe, I walk everywhere, and I take trains for further distances. In those experiences, there is a certain sense of community with others. Even if you are not talking with them, you are on the same journey. You are going from one place to another, and you share in that. You sit close to them. You walk beside them. You overhear conversations. It places you out there with others, in a shared story. I feel alive and inspired by that - in the simple and mundane.

Back at home, I try to incorporate that as much as possible but our cities and transportation options are set-up differently, so it is not really possible. 

One way I can incorporate this feeling of community is in coffee shops. I can sit here at a big table, sharing it with a man who is working on his laptop, and each of us is quietly focused on our task, while mutually respecting each other in space and time. This is the same here and everywhere I have been in Europe. That is why I love to spend time at a coffee shop because it is one place that universally offers that sense of connection and community with strangers whilst enjoying some relaxing time drinking coffee whilst working on something (reading, writing, working, studying). I enjoy that wherever I am, it has become essential to my weeks.

Well, my coffee cup is now empty, and it is getting busier in here. I have some things to do, and like with all good things, we must pause them to do the duties of the weekend. Chores. But here I took some time to slow down and enjoy a favourite thing whether I am travelling or at home. What a gift.