Coffee Bean

 I have two friends who love to have coffee. To each of them having a cup of coffee is a different experience, but the main denominator is that they love it. I hope they get to read this blog-post. I was not much of a coffee consumer until recently. This is owing to the fact that, I did not grow up in much of a coffee culture. I owe much of my consumption habits now to former housemates, who got me curious about this beverage. 

Enough about me, lets get back to the two friends that I mentioned earlier. For confidentiality I shall be referring to them by their initials. So my one friend, C. is a total coffee nerd. For me having coffee using just means getting a sachet of powder and hot water in a cup. In his eyes this a vulgar way of having the sacred drink. I remember one morning, I was fortunate enough to see how he brews his coffee. C. was very meticulous about his method. He had all the gizmos that, you would usually see in coffee shops being handled by baristas. It felt like I was watching my science teacher doing a distillation experiment for the first time again.

For C. the water had to be boiled at the right temperature, the filter paper had to be washed, even the water the water was being poured was done in a precise and deliberate manner. Such attention to detail, is because he only permits himself a single cup of coffee per day, so it is very important for him to drink a very good cup of coffee, if that is all that he gets to have.

While on the one hand what my friend C. goes through in his coffee drinking seems like a scientific procedure, my other friend A. has her coffee in a way that resembles a somewhat spiritual experience. If you are reading this I apologise for making you sound like a coffee hippie. The way she describes her habit is one that is built from the ambiance. Her morning coffee is a time for her to centre herself as the day starts. It's a time for her to smell the coffee as it brews, she gets to feel the warmth of her mug in her hands, she gets to take in the sights from her balcony as a new day starts, then at the right time she takes the first sip of her coffee have the first taste of the day. 

It's a peculiar matter, how both my companions are enjoying their coffee yet, from very different vantage points. It reveals a beauty of life, how we can each come to the same destination yet the journeys we take, and the paths we follow do not look the same. We can all the same end but different means, its the generic and unique nature of snowflakes, no two flakes have the same geometry, but are all made of the same substance get you feeling a chill all the same. 

In spending more time reflecting upon my friends' behavior. I realized that far too often I neglect to enjoy the simple mundane things in life. It's an art that I wish to practice more, to find myself in awe and enjoyment of the ordinary things in life. Perhaps in consuming consumerist media, we are deluded to believe the more lavish things deserve more enjoyment or are more fulfilling. 

    

I think it's the author of Frankenstein who puts it this way, there is more joy for the peasant whose whole world is his village, than the sailor trying to scale the globe. Not to say that trying new things is bad. It's the lack of appreciation for the things we routinely do, that can rob us of simple pleasures in life. If you have made this far, here is my challenge to you, try to have fun doing something mundane during the course of the next week. Try to see how therapeutic folding laundry can be, or how peaceful it is to clear out unread email.