Morning Coffee

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by Michelle Lasley

Michelle Lasley is a mother, wife in Pacific Northwest learning to balance green dreams with budget realities.

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July 7, 2011

Categories: Family, Food, One a Day, Post a Day 2011, The Green Life

Image via Wikipedia

Another face lift. Another theme. Let’s try it with something I like. Coffee.

When you learn about something better – do you keep doing the old thing or do you grasp onto the new?

I started drinking Folder’s Coffee. Instant. Crystals. Why? Because my mom drank it. I had always enjoyed the smell, and eventually I got up the courage to try it, and I drank it. I enjoyed the simplicity of making this brew. You bowl the water, spoon in your crystals, dissolve into hot water, add flavorings (milk & sugar), consume.

Then, I met someone who drank West Coast Coffee. My ways were changed. Eventually, I gave up Folders Crystals and sugar in my coffee. My perfect brew now, is something local, maybe organic and shade grown. I prefer single origin beans from Central America. I prefer the deep, dark, smooth roasts versus the bitter French or sometimes African varieties. I have preferences. I have grown beyond Folders Crystals.

I even bought the right equipment to go with it. I have a gold cone filter adorning my Cuisinart. I grind my coffee fresh, daily, in my Krups spice grinder. Two heaping tablespoons for every 6 to 8 oz of water.

I like it strong.

I like it rich with cream. I buy my cream, now, from a local dairy. It comes in glass bottles that I return weekly with my new order. The rich, flavorful blend, stirred to perfection with this whole milk cream.

Delish.

I found something better, and it didn’t take long for me to grasp onto this new thing. I found strength in this new way of drinking coffee, and to all the coffee drinkers, I try to convert them. It’s a religion, this coffee drinking. I even go so far as to bring my own coffee when I’m traveling! Lest I fear not getting a perfect cup while away from home.

So, how does that translate to the rest of life? When you learn your strengths, for example – what do you do? What do you do when you have the thing you always anted, and suddenly new information appears, and you aren’t sure if you want it anymore.

That same person who showed me good coffee — he had a habit of always flitting to the next new thing. It’s caused instability and a certain amount of chaos in his life. I know I don’t want that. So, how do you find the patience to stick the thing out until the new thing can take place?

That’s the balancing act, right? I have learned this lesson. I was faced with it in my twenties. Flit, flit, flit. What did that give me? Lots of experience without any steadfastness. Now, it’s time to build on the steadfastness. My brain instructs me to write next that this is the time to hone my “hobbies” and focus these extra curricular activities. If I know the thing I should be doing, get experience in that in the off time. Do the steadfast thing until the track is in place for the other.

Patience. Persistence. Focus. Just like that perfect cup of morning coffee. Can you smell it? Hear it? Breathe it.