Grounds for your Garden, Grounds for your Heart!!!

I’ll try to be unbiased as I write this evening. I will think about sweet things, like cupcakes, ponies, flowers, cute puppies that don’t poop indoors. I will take a deep breath and I will think about that moment in the day when I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Then I will think about the moment when I finally got in my car to go home, stopped by the WalMart in the good part of town, mainly because I didn’t feel like being on pins and needles, on edge like the bad neighborhood WalMart can make me feel, in fact, for the sake of reference, I'll call it the off-the-WalMart because it’s one of those locations that just seems like someone could go crazy at any given moment, like hold someone hostage with a banana in the produce section.

So, I think about that moment at WalMart when I was approached by not ONE but TWO people asking for directions to certain parts of the store…and the sad part of this little story is that I didn’t realize what was going on until the second unassuming WalMart patron proclaimed, excitedly, “I didn’t even KNOW there was a Starbucks in here!” Really, Kara? You wore your APRON into the WalMart?!? It was that kind of day… But it gets even better, because I started looking around and said to the guy about Starbucks, “For real...Where is it?!” (I mean, we ARE in the good part of town) and then the lightbulb went off as I looked down at my familiar green apron…I had forgotten to take it off when I left in a haste and I was advertising shamelessly. I untied it and was carrying it wadded in my hand in such a guilty fashion that the lady at the checkout, after scanning my folders, glanced at it suspiciously, until I told her, “No, I came in with this…I know it doesn’t have a smiley face sticker on it…but…long day, long story…” and she just laughed…she got it. She works with crazy customer demands all day.

It wasn’t just the customer demands today. It was ME. I was making lists from the “get-go” of the day at 4:30a.m., and I’m not a list maker. I don’t like lists because they are a time waster- case in point. Don’t make the list, eliminate a step. (ah-ha, another book idea, “Less List Construction, More Production!” Okay, so I will work on that title…) But my point is- I was doomed for a chaotic day because I knew I was going to accomplish very little of my list.

This kind of thing happens in a customer satisfaction industry. They call it the tyranny of the urgent, aka- customer comes first. Fall decorations, school preparation, inventory stocking, all of that takes a backseat to that next guy in line that is ordering drinks that sound like something from outer space. Sometimes, when a young kid comes in and orders a “Venti Solo Extra Caramel One Shot Mocha No Whip Caramel Frappuccino” I want to say to him/her, “What would your grandmother say about that?!” haha. Mainly because our generations are becoming so accustomed to these personalized customer demands that THEY are forgetting about the important part, the part that was created to be ENJOYED. Not just the delicious, creamy, foamy blended drink, but the human aspect of it all. I mean, at what point do we stop and say to ourselves, “Has this indulgent part of our day become an INTEGRAL part of our day?”

I think that is why I still have a soft spot for the small town Starbucks. Small town people have to make an EVENT of going to Starbucks. When I see a family walk into our store, a travel beaten weary family, I am always SO HAPPY to make their experience “neat” or “special” which are some of the terms that I have heard them say that make the job so much more rewarding. Not that I don’t like the regulars that come in every day, because for the most part, they are the easiest and most pleasant customers, which is why they keep coming back. It’s the “Joe cools” and the “Too Diva for your Time” peeps that spout off their order and make comments like, “MY STARBUCKS does it better…” or, between phone texts, “This tastes gross” (insert wave of the hand, a slight swirl of the fingers, starbucks sign language for make it again, RIGHT this time! And this actually happened today with a lady that was on her phone and wouldn’t ONCE look up to make eye contact, or to see the sympathetic look I was trying to offer her. My sympathy quickly turned to apathy and all I wanted was to get her the perfect drink and get her walking perfectly out the door.) Behind this bubbly exterior, despite the fact that we remain highly caffeinated, we have feelings, too!!! Haha.

The Fall decorations are up, halfway, in our store. We are beginning to look a lot like an Autumn Jubilee. I am sure my spirits will soon be soaring for all the wonderful new aromas that will be floating around the store, and the cheer that will infect my soul because of the closeness of the holidays, with the evidence encasing every smiling face, every school spirit clad customer, every student that comes in to order shots of espresso to stay up studying late for exams…

Yes, this evening, right now, I am not focusing on that moment at the espresso bar when I was ready to put my head in my hands and cry because we were out of supplies, I was being reprimanded by a customer who was dissatisfied, and I felt like my list had long ago given up on me and walked next door to CVS to check out the make-up or anything that would be more productive than to wait on me to start checking things off…

Today was not about lists that didn’t get accomplished, it was about comprehending the coming and going of seasons. A new season is upon me…and with a new season comes the shedding of the old to make room for the new. People come in all the time to get the old grounds from our espresso machines to use as fertilizer for their gardens. I love this idea of growth, of being fertilized from someone’s white mocha (extra hot, no foam)…haha. What a simple concept, using all our resources to fertilize our future. Using our experiences to ENRICH our next steps in life. Duh, Kara, like looking down at the apron I’ve been wearing all along, thanking God that He has given me this life opportunity to be the best ME possible. Taking every talent, quirk, capability, and blessing to do something AMAZING tomorrow. Lightbulb! “There is a time for everything…and a season for everything under Heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1