This Little Old Coffeeshop

It seems that as far as great moments go, this coffee shop, called It's a Grind, has the market cornered. Let me tell you what I mean...

On more than one occasion when I have been here there has also been a group of people from what I can guess is probably a group home or community-living center (similar perhaps to what Devereaux used to be in Santa Barbara) out for an hour or so. This group comes in, accompanied my a social worker and they create their own little community here in the coffee shop. To be honest, I get kind of jealous. I got the incredible chance to work with developmentally disabled adults when I was in high school at a summer camp and fell in love with them. If you've ever had a conversation with me about developmental disabilities, you'll know that it is one thing I am impassioned about...providing compassionate, adequate, and invested care, not just physical and mental, but also emotional and spiritual. And so when I see this group of people come in, all with their own apparent ailments yet caring for one another, conversing, and even smiling at me, the stranger in the corner, I am reminded of what I love about these people. They love one another in spite (or perhaps because) of their physical and mental difficulties. They watch out for one another and laugh at each other's jokes. They have invested in a community of their very own without even knowing it. And to the outside world, to me at least, they are in a place I would very much like to be in. That being said, I wonder why we, who have just as many problems, though they may not be as obvious, have such a difficult time of investing in one another. It gives me hope for the future though...

Today an old couple was wandering around the coffee shop looking for a place to sit, seeing as all the tables are taken. It was obvious in the way they walked together that they have loved each other for a very long time. The way they are sitting now, close together, nearly on the edge of their seats, positioned at a perpendicular angle to one another, says that they still are not tired of each other and that they both believe there is more to be learned about the other. It makes me happy, to know that this couple is still in love with one another and looking forward to every day they have together. They are the kind of couple that makes me excited to get married, grow old with someone and share every day of my life with them, knowing that at the end of it, we will still both believe there is more to be shared.

Thank heavens for this little old coffee shop.







"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." -T.S. Eliot