The main living area of our home is one of those open concept spaces. Colorful and filled with natural sunlight from oversized windows on three sides with a vaulted, geometric ceiling.
It’s there I’m witness to a daily miracle.
The source is no mere coffee maker. It’s an apparatus of alchemistic artistry. Ours isn’t exactly the Tesla of coffee machines, but certainly an above average home device. It’s equipped with a built in grinder and water purifier. After a quick cleaning, the anticipation builds.
The beans inside the hopper are exotic and oily. Dare I say seductive? They’ve made the journey to East Taunton from all corners of the Earth. Sumatra, Ethiopia, Costa Rica, Brazil, Vietnam, Jamaica.
Just for me.
With a button push, the machine whirrs to life and coffee is burr ground to my specifications. Before the brewing cycle even begins, I inhale deeply as the aroma fills the kitchen.
Once ground, cold water begins its transformation to hot ebony and slowly drips into a thermal carafe. A hidden prize, yet unseen. It may as well be gold.
$12 is about the price for a pound of quality coffee. When translated into 48 cups, that’s about .25 cents each. Talk about an absolute bargain.
There are so many blessings in this interaction. Almost too many to count.
There’s my good fortune to be alive in a time when great coffee is readily available anyplace on Earth. Then there are the generations of farmers who skillfully grow these magic beans halfway across the globe.
Let’s next consider the logistical marvel of human engineering that allows it to arrive freshly vacuum sealed, in my local grocery store. What about the mind blowing fact that I’m careening through space on a heavenly body that invested billions of years to cultivate the perfect balance of sunlight, moisture and soil for coffee beans to flourish.
I have a home with a peaceful, warm, sun lit space to sit and quietly enjoy coffee every single day with my best friend. I also won’t take for granted being able to afford a $260 coffee maker and $12 bags of coffee with nary a second thought.
Of course, I worked hard to get here, but just because something is earned does not mean it’s not worth paying attention to it.
In fact, if you can appreciate something long after you’ve earned it, the happier you’ll be. Thankfully for me, the miracle of sitting in silence with morning coffee never gets old.
If you want to be happy, learn to love the little things. If you want to love the little things, understand that attention and gratitude are the keys.
You don’t need a new thing to be grateful for each day. In fact, the more you realize it’s the same old things, over and over again, that make you feel warm, sheltered, and loved, the easier it’ll be to truly savor those things and find true, lasting contentment in them.
You don’t need anything more than what you already have because the little things are actually, the biggest things of all.
