I suspect that I drink too much coffee. I am okay with that. I sure enjoy a good cup of coffee. I have long eliminated sugar from my coffee but still like to have coffee cream. In the morning, my first task to to make my pilgrimage to the coffee pot and make a pot of coffee. It is certainly part of my morning ritual.

Looking back, I never drank coffee until I started working at NS Tractors. My boss, Mike Howe, came into work with a thermos full of coffee with cream every day. It started innocently enough, he offered me a cup of coffee one morning. I accepted and quite thoroughly enjoyed it. Gradually, I started having two cups from his thermos, then more. His health was on the decline at the time and he drank less and I drank more. I think near the end, he was making the coffee more for me than himself. To Michael, I raise my mug of coffee and say thank you. Rest In Peace Mike.

I think that coffee is a great way for people to start a journey of gratitude. It is easy to be mindful for that first cup of coffee in the morning. For many folks, this may be the slowest, least hectic point in the day. That is certainly the image that the coffee commercials portray. It is a great point in time to stop and reflect and press the pause button on the hectic tape of activity we are about to embark upon each day. My morning reflection & gratitude activities are performed with coffee. I am very grateful for the bean.

I would like to state at this point that I am not a fan of highly institutionalized coffee like Starbucks and Tim Hortons. Especially Starbucks. If I am out and about and feel like a cup of coffee, I prefer a neighbourhood coffee shop. You know the kind, you almost feel like a poetry reading will break out at any moment. There will always be someone in a corner reading Nietzsche. Gathering places for modern day beatniks.

Today I give thanks to coffee and serendipity. Through this morning’s blog entry, I fondly recall working for Mike Howe. A great boss and a wonderful person. Miss you Mike.

Here is a fun song by the Clintons as they sing about the Bean.

The morning cup of coffee has an exhilaration about it which the cheering influence of the afternoon or evening cup of tea cannot be expected to reproduce.  ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes