Waking up

 

 

In a perfect world all the mornings would begin at 10 am.

To be honest, I hate waking up in the mornings.  However, I tolerate them.  So, my tried and true method, to at least get through, is drinking coffee and lying to myself. Then, the other week I made a profound discovery about waking up that encouraged me.

Just a week or so ago, I went on an architectural scavenger hunt to Center City Philadelphia with my eleven year old daughter and her class from school. My favorite part of the trip had to be walking around inside the historic Wannamaker Building.  Much to my delight there just happened to be a Starbucks coffee house inside. So, we took our place in line and waited.

After a ten minute wait, it was our turn.  During the interval I overheard the barista say something about waking up the customer’s cookie in front of us.  So, when I ordered a coffee for myself and a cookie for my daughter, I made it a point to have him repeat what he had just said. With a smile he repeated this phrase, “Do you mind if I wake up the butter in your cookie?”  My daughter exuberantly said, “Yes,” and he took her cookie warming it up for her in the microwave.  He was right; it certainly did taste better with the butter awakened.

My newly acquainted friend at Starbucks inadvertently reminded me that at times like these, we all need some waking up. However, as stated previously, waking up for me throughout my life has never been a strong suit.  Even when I am awake I still am not totally lucent.  For example, every morning I get up a half hour early, drink some coffee, pray a little and check on some sports’ scores.  Then I can embrace the morning much better and with much more clarity.

Yet, although I struggle with waking up, I believe it is an imperative in all our lives to be more intentional with how we spend our time.  We all need to be at our best for our own sakes and for those we interact with on a daily basis.  We need to be the best listeners.  We need to be kinder and gentler, while being less harsh.  We need to love like there is no tomorrow, especially when it comes to our loved ones.

So, regardless of whatever means you must use to be more awake and alert in your relationships I would implore you to keeping engaging those around you.  To be ignorant and sleepwalk through life should never be an option. 

Wake up and don’t let the barista at Starbucks be nicer to the ones you love than you are.

Swavel