The one cup of coffee

 

Coffee Love

I’ve loved the taste of coffee since I was something like 4 and used to jump over to my parents’ cups before the table was cleared to take a sip off the last remaining drops.

In early adulthood I was introduced to fresh roasted coffee and beans and blends from many places.  Melitta pots then espresso machine and then stove-top espresso pots worked their way through my repertoire.  And I drank coffee all day, not knowing at the time that I was using it to ward off the growing fatigue born of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue.

Around the same time diagnoses and treatments began, I switched for some years to decaf.  Back when decaffeinating and reducing stress were in instead of trying to prove how hyped up and busy you can be…

Eventually I slid back to caffeinated but reducing the amount of coffee.  I refuse to give it up and I believe in the anti-oxidant boost of a freshly brewed cup but I also accept the down sides so I have been holding to a one perfect cup plan for some years.

On the Scribblings blog I’m going to put up a post that goes into more detail about the kind of coffee (La Coppa) and the preparation, but here I’m just contemplating that one cup each day and its sacred place in my day.

Some years back a post on the old Bardo group blog suggesting people find a “check-in partner” to text each day and say what you’re feeling and what you intend, led me to post about it.  A long-time friend immediately got in touch to say she’d like to do it.  Since I hate texting I said yes, if we could change it to e-mail.

We soon added “three gratitudes” to the daily check-in.  After a few years, in the midst of lots of suggestions about joy, I asked to add that, differentiating it from gratitude as a more vibrant emotion and one I have trouble accessing.  She felt the same, so we added an unspecified number of “joys” noted each day.  (I highly recommend this check-in practice, btw)

My daily cup of java almost instantly made the list and, contemplating it, I soon informed her to expect that one every day.  Having just the one cup of this beverage I LOVE means I look forward to it.  When I wash all the components of the pot and cup, etc. each evening I smile as they hit the drying rack, knowing they’ll be ready to go for that so-loved mug in the morning.

I wait until breakfast is over to fix it so I can sit and sip it as its own separate moment.  Each drink is savored and I’m never mingling in bites of toast or other flavors to sully the exquisite taste of the coffee.  It’s a moment in my day set aside from others.

To me that one cup each day is a sacred moment.  I really feel the joy and gratitude and mark the moment.  Simple, special, just one cup.