It was not the man on 24th and Mission asking for change.
It was not the baby, sleeping angelic in her stroller.
It was not the trees, the sunshine, the cloudless perfect sky.
It was the coffee menu at Philz.
For the 20th time or the 1000th,
you might have ordered the small decaf French,
just like you always did,
medium cream, light sweet.
It had become a small habit, like taking your shoes off at the door,
flicking the day's mail on the kitchen counter,
shutting the drapes before bed.
You grow accustomed to things so easily,
turn them into a kind of lifeline to order and security and sanity.
You didn't even know what else was on the menu,
would call out to the barista in a voice not unlike
a robot, flat and meaningless.
You thought you sounded determined, certain, confident, hip,
but really, you were unimaginative, plain, paper-thin.
Someone or something could topple you any second,
you knew that, so you clung to your small decaf French
because you were in the market for anything you could rely on,
that wouldn't destroy the slim grip you were keeping on everything.
And yet, today, without thinking
you uttered the words "Ethiopian," and the woman behind the counter
reached back into a different jar to gather up the beans.
It was a small thing, really, but you saw it
for its metaphor, for the larger conversation
you were beginning to have with yourself.
"Look up," is what you were saying.
"What else is there to see?"
2 comments:
I enjoyed this thought-provoking post. It reminds me of a quote from the movie "Bed of Roses":
'I like to take these long walks, mostly at night and look up at all the darkened windows. I just wonder what peoples lives are like and what they're dreaming about. And one night I was out pretty late, and as usual, all of the windows were dark, except one and I stopped and looked up, and I saw you, standing there, and you were crying. I thought what was it that made you so sad. I like to see peoples faces, when they are just falling in love, or making up from a fight, or even if they are just grieving. There's something beautiful about a persons face at that moment, and yours was incredible...confused...shocked.'
Yes, Maya. Great question. One that I need to ask more often - what else is there to see? and feel and experience???
And what small changes can I make in order to broaden my horizon, my point of view? And life itself?
Post a Comment