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Friday, June 5, 2009

Cup,Slurp,Identify, & Describe

Close your eyes for a moment. When was the last time you really experienced something? Was it the taste of a delectable dessert? Was it the sweet morning air? Perhaps it was a song that captured your ear and brought you back to a moment or place in time.

During my tenure at Starbucks my absolute favorite activity was the coffee tasting. It was something that was drilled into me from the moment I walked through the doors. We did coffee tastings for everything:meetings,first days, parties, and just for the fun of it. The point of it was to get the partners as well as customers involved in understanding the complexities of coffee. We usually paired it with a dessert that complimented the flavors in the coffee. Nothing delighted me more than when I would conduct a partners first impressions. We would always start with a tasting. I favored a French press of Kenyan coffee for the first day, and usually paired it with a lemon bar. I loved to watch as an ordinary cup of coffee was transformed in front of them. It did not matter if the partner was a coffee drinker or not. I always got a reaction once they made the connection between the flavors of the coffee and the pastry.

The basic steps were to cup the coffee and get a good whiff of what you were about to taste. The next step was to slurp. This had a two fold purpose. The first was that it cooled the coffee down so that you could actually taste, and the second helped to spray the liquid across the pallet so a true flavor profile could be assessed. After getting a good taste you could then identify what parts of the tongue were affected by the flavor. Last but not least we described what we had tasted.

I may be losing some of you who don't love coffee, but bear with me. The reason I loved this practice so much was not simply because I enjoy coffee. It really was the experience of awakening the senses to something deeper than the eye can see. Too often we resort to hyper drive in our fast paced society. We inhale food, ingest millions of bits of information, and simply run through life without stopping to allow our senses to catch up. There is something pure and wonderful about stopping and allowing the senses to soak in the experience. I promise the price of time will be well rewarded.

Never Take for Granted

Tonight was one of those nights. A night where I came home and just needed some quiet. The kids were loud. Micah wanted to be held all night. Kaylie wanted a snack, to go the the park, to play, and to interrupt any conversation I was having. I know every mom can relate to what I'm talking about. Sometimes you just want some time for yourself. Time to feel like you are more than just a cook, nurse, and maid. I finally put them to bed, and decided to pull out some old notebooks full of my writings over the years. I came across this poem I wrote the night after I found out I had miscarried our first child.

October 18th
October 18th I found you were not there
My heart was broken, nothing seemed fair.
To know I would not see you
Or get to hold you to my heart,
My soul was devastated.
Will time ever heal this tear?
I am so sad.
I miss you so much now.
In just a few short weeks,
God has given you so much to endow.
You opened my heart is so many ways.
Slowly I would give up my selfishness,
For this love so great.
Baby, God wanted you to be with Him.
So once again I cannot be selfish.
I will give in.
I will always love you, my very first.
I'll keep your little snoopy,
To always remind us of you.
I love you, goodnight,
Until we meet again.

Reading this brought back a flood of memories. My children are my babies and I can never take them for granted. In those times when I'm tired, or feel I can't listen to that song one more time, I remember how precious these gifts are to me. These times are but a moment, and in a blink they will be grown.

Like a Punch in the Gut

Have you ever been strolling through life happy, unaware of the pot hole waiting just around the corner? Well I just hit that pothole, and it feels more like a punch in the gut. This may be an exaggeration, but it's a fresh hit so I need to vent. No one is completley immune to this recession. Today we found out that due to some foreclosures in our neighborhood our appraisal on our home was not enough to meet the refinance requirements. Not only are we paying a ridiculously high interest rate, but Dallas county in gouging us on taxes with an inflated property value. We wanted to dispute this and lower our payment, but ironically the deadline for the 2009 year was June1. There are still a few options on the refinance, but right now things look pretty bleak. It looks like we could be stuck with this ARM for a little while longer and who knows what rates will start to inflate to in the unstable market . It is completely frustrating when we were banking on paying some major debt off with the monthly savings.

Now I just need to take a step back. I know there are others in much dire straits than we are. It's times like these that patience and perseverance are what keep us holding it together. Now I guess I will just put on my big girl panties and do the only thing I can. Deal with it!