Life imitates art imitates coffee

To know what inspires people is to understand where they want to go in life. Since I’ve never been much of a “small talker,” I usually delve right into serious questions to avoid banter that is a waste of time when interacting with people throughout the day. I know that small talk has a time and place, for example, at work, if I don’t have a couple minutes to visit with a person that is standing in line, I don’t need to ask them a question about who is their hero today (even though I have gotten several interesting answers to that question including, “You, if you get me my coffee quick…” haha! True story).

For the most part, I small talk as a means to an end, simply for customer service reasons, it’s good to be “nice” and to ask questions about “How are you?” and “Can you believe this weather…?!” Even if I don’t really want to know the answer. It’s easy to appear to interested in small talk because it takes no investment.

As I sit here today, in the coffeeshop, about to go on my shift, I am listening to two girls have a conversation about a relationship. One girl just said, “Allow yourself to be human, but surround yourself with people who point you towards Christ…” Hmmm, good advice…but the girl giving the advice seems bossy (and appears to be single by the clues she is giving to her own personal journey), and myself and the man sitting at the table by me have been listening to her for the past twenty minutes as she is not exactly whispering her advice. At least she is giving decent advice…and it’s good to know that other people have relationship issues, too. This is actually the second relationship conversation I have overheard in the past week, so it must be an epidemic. Haha.

In addition to the girls and the man and myself, there is one other couple in the cafe that appears fairly “normal” (a guy and a girl) at a larger of our tables…they have been walking back and forth to each other’s computers, giving advice, pointers, with books and papers strewn about all over the table. Apparently, I find out from the other M.O.D that their internet is down at home and they are doing “work” from Starbucks today. When I go on my shift, I notice something- the guy has a prosthetic leg. Literally, his whole “leg” is a skinny metal brace that fits into a fake ankle and a matching tennis shoe. I would have NEVER known if the guy wasn’t wearing shorts. The couple stays doing their work until we lock the door, at which point they move to the tables outside to sit until I go outside to gather the outdoor furniture so I can bring it in to secure it for the night. I watched them throughout the day, on my shift, as I swept or wiped down the tables, asking a couple times if they wanted refills or pastries. As they leave, after I apologize for our early closing on the weekend, I watch the guy walk off with the girl, thinking, “He never once gave any indication of the inconvenience of the prosthetic,” and I was extremely grateful all the sudden for my working body parts. For everything. For not having to go home at night and deal with something so HUGELY different from the rest of the human population. A fake leg. A prosthetic.

My mom recently had surgery and has a bandage on her right hand. She has had to alter her life because of this recent handicap. What if we had to go through life with a handicap? I would be unprepared for anything that stopped me from living a normal life, but what if? It’s always good to come across someone who lives a life “inspired” that is different.

I am inspired by people that live through adversity. Adversity is something very inspiring because it comes in many different forms and it helps us to be more aware of our surroundings in a sense of gratefulness and thankfulness for simple things. I am so grateful for my abilities. I suddenly want to go climb a mountain, just because I can. But maybe I should just make the next the cup of coffee for a customer and be thankful that I have two legs on which I can stand and two hands of which I can grasp together and offer up a prayer of thanks for a “normal” life- whatever that might be!
By the way- this is a picture of me being "fierce!"