What Is That In Your Coffee

"Widespread caffeine use explains a lot about the twentieth century."
- Greg Egan

Here we are at the end of a long week that was made even longer for some by watching the Super Bowl late last Sunday. The Friday morning sun is beginning to creep over the horizon and all you can think of is getting that first cup of coffee.

Did you ever wonder what it is about coffee that stirs your craving?

Well here is a short video that helps explain at least why I like my morning cup of coffee so much. And all along I had thought it was due to Juan Valdez' constant search for the best coffee beans bringing me the freshest and most aromatic flavors.



So have your cup of coffee this morning and finish off the work week strong. The weekend is nearly upon us.

Stay inspired my friends!

Your Coffee Cup

“The smell of coffee was enough to wake up my neighbors. In a display of gratitude, they complained about my music being too loud.” ― Jarod Kintz

Are we in such a state of concern to think a red cup can define our life?

Take the story of group of people, highly established in their beliefs, getting together one day at a favorite Starbucks location to chat. Their conversation soon turned into complaints about their life, society and the plain red holiday cups the Starbucks coffee was served in.

Soon a stranger having overheard their conversation found several older cups on the shelves having more holiday themed designs. He paid for each of the cups filled with coffee and offered them to the group gathered at the table.

Each of the astounded coffee drinkers took the festive cups setting their own drinks to the side. When all of them had their new cup of coffee in hand, the stranger said: "If you noticed, all of the holiday themed cups have been taken up, leaving behind the plain red ones."

He continued by saying, "While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink."

Consider that life is the coffee.

Your jobs, money and position in society are the cups. Your cup might be red, blue, brown, white, black or festive holiday themed. But those cups are just tools to hold and contain life.

The cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Many times by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee. We enjoy and live for the coffee, not the cups! The happiest of people do not necessarily have the best of everything.

What they do is make the best of everything.

Enjoy your coffee, tea or milk in any cup that is handy. Inside is what matters.

Stay inspired my friends!

A Cup of Coffee

“Life is a beautiful and endless journey in search of the perfect cup.” ― Barbara A. Daniels

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink.

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups. And then you began eyeing each other's cups. Now consider this, life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of life we live.

Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee life has provided us. "Life brews the coffee, not the cups.......... " Enjoy your coffee!

"The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything."

Two Coffee Cups

Coffee and Cigarettes

"Live so that when your children think of fairness, caring, and integrity, they think of you." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

There are times in our life when we just struggle to get through the day. For some reason, maybe we know why, maybe we simply do not know, the day seems to be in perfect alignment against us. The act of even placing one foot in front of the other is a battle against the weight of our struggles.

It is during those times that we could use the helping hand of another.

You could be that person, to enter into the life of another. You could be the one that will help burden some of that person's load. That is the type of person we need and should be. It does not take much to be a person that cares.

You can have a significant impact on another person's life when things are going bad for them. Use your smile, provide a word of encouragement or maybe just buy them a cup of coffee to ease the day. The little things can impact big.

Stay inspired my friends.

Whats That In My Coffee

"I wake up some mornings and sit and have my coffee and look out at my beautiful garden, and I go, 'Remember how good this is. Because you can lose it." -Jim Carrey

Not long ago, I was sitting in the morning sun drinking that first cup of coffee. A wonderful Saturday with a slight fall coolness in the air and leaves turning bright red and orange in color. The warmness of coffee was soothing and tasted wonderful in the setting as the cacophony of the day began all around me.

As I neared the end of drinking my coffee, I noticed something in the bottom of the cup. It could have been a piece of coffee bean or possibly a tiny piece of a leaf may have floated into my cup. Worse yet, maybe it was a flying insect of some sort seeking out the warmth in the steaming coffee mist. Any which way you wanted to view it, all I could say was "whats that in my coffee"?

The discovery did not cause me great alarm as the object was still in the cup and not inside of me. It did sort of intrigue me for a very short amount of time until I rinsed the cup and filled it once again with more coffee.

One small "something" did not change the enjoyment I had in drinking that cup of coffee.

As we live our life, each day, each week, month and year, there will be "something" that ends up in the bottom of our cup. Circumstance and other stuff will occur. Will you let those things ruin the enjoyable moments of your life? Will you let those "somethings" dictate the day?

When you find that "something" in the bottom of your cup, never mind it. Wash out the cup and fill it full once again. Enjoy the taste of the coffee, enjoy life!

Stay inspired my friends.

Giant Smiles

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."
-Joseph Addison

How much would you spend on coffee to see a person smile?

A man in Michigan by the name of Dan Dewey has spent $10,000 of his own money to do just that. And it seems this weekly habit causes the line to back up at a local Starbucks each and every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Others may at first be put off by the long wait until they learn he is there to buy coffee for patients undergoing chemotherapy at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in the town of Pontiac, Michigan.

All of this began in 2007 when his father was a patient at the same hospital. It just so happened that every Thursday at the same time, his father was undergoing chemotherapy and Dan was there each time. One particular trip, with his father sitting in treatment, Dan offered to get his father a coffee from Starbucks.

As Dan recalls, “I took a look around. There were several other people there, and they couldn’t go anywhere. So I said, ‘Anybody else want a coffee? He’s buying; I’ve got his wallet.’”

This became a weekly event in which Dan would get coffee for his father, other patients and staff in the cancer unit. When his father had completed his treatments, Dan asked his father if he should continue coming back to get coffee for others. His father replied, “Yeah, go ahead."

Dan says he will never forget his father's words and while his father passed away the following year at age 87, his memory inspires his son to comfort other cancer patients with his weekly trip to the cancer treatment facility which has become known as “Dan’s Coffee Run.”

Those that know Dan also note that Dan Dewey does not have a lot of money, but it does not stop his generosity. He does get fan mail and some donations from those that have never met him. There are the occasional gift cards and letters from those he has never served coffee to but have undergone cancer treatment as well.

But it is the coffee and friendly nature of Dan that rewards him with new friends and lots of smiles. And more importantly as Dan says, "I feel like I’m having coffee with my dad every Thursday morning. That’s all I need.”

Many times all it takes is a friendly gesture, a little conversation and a gigantic smile to make all of the difference in a person's life and your own.

Stay inspired my friends!

Hard Coffee Road

"The road of life can only reveal itself as it is traveled; each turn in the road reveals a surprise. Man's future is hidden." -Unknown

There is a phrase that I became familiar with growing up in the farmland of the midwest. If you were being given directions to get from one field to the next, you might hear "its a hard coffee road." The phrase meant that at least one of the roads being traveled was not in very good shape. More than likely it was a poorly maintained road full of ruts and bumps. In turn, it would be a hard road to drive down and drink coffee at the same time.

I have been down that type of road many a time. It is the type of road that you may have been down as well in life. A road you might be traveling in life, drinking a cup of coffee when all of a sudden things become quite bumpy. That nice smooth ride, sipping on your morning coffee suddenly becomes difficult and hard to enjoy.

There are going to be those days during your drive in life that drinking your morning coffee is difficult. The coffee will burn your lip, spill onto your tie and make you wonder why you even drink coffee. And know there are really only two options.

You pull over on the side of the road and enjoy your coffee, but to stop your forward movement is will not get you to your destination. Your coffee will either become cold or you will have drank until the cup is empty. You are simply left sitting on the side of the road and not one step closer to where you want to be in life.

The other option is to manage the situation and keep moving forward. You could always slow down a little bit while drinking that coffee. You could always put the coffee down for now, getting rid of that distraction and concentrating on the more important things. And even if you keep trying to drink the coffee, with it splashing back and forth. Remember that a little bit of spilled coffee is just coffee.

It might be a "hard coffee road" you are currently on, but just keep moving. There are better roads ahead for you.

Stay inspired my friends.

French Dialogue

"That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments." -Samuel Johnson

It was all we wanted, a cup of coffee from which a relaxing afternoon would melt away. It was of course in a restaurant in the French village of Senlis. Two Americans, enjoying the day and trying to traverse the French language in a way those around thought amusing.

It is said by some that the French can be rude, but I would say that can happen anywhere. The French are very nice and accomodating any time I travel to France. What I do observe is if you try to speak the language of the local area you are in, it is a respectful sign and acknowledgement to them. And so we tried, we viewed the menu and tried to say the right words in the right dialect and without sounding too foolish.

We used our intellect and could make out the words of various items on the menu. The cafe, creme brulee were easy enough and the tarte aux pomme was likely a dessert as well. Go figure, it would be the desserts that we understood most easily. Yet it was not a meal we were after, it was conversation.

In a country where you don't speak the language, all of the conversations around you are like static to the senses. You know the talk is of family, sports, business or possibly gossip. But you can not make out the words and the laughter is enticing. So you look at each other and start your own conversation, in English, in focus on each other.

I would like to think that those around us enjoyed the English language as well since it is not something they hear all that often. Two Americans, a man and woman, husband and wife talking of things close to them, of things that fill their life together.

It was a conversation that was long but was too short. That is what makes relationship with others so wonderful. It is what makes my marriage so great; the conversation between two people. A cup of coffee, a dessert and a long conversation that always seems to end too soon.

Make your conversations with others the ones each of you want to remember for a long time. Make those conversations such that you never want them to end. Make your connection with others be the type that they never want it to end.