I am one of those bloggers who finds it impossible to write without a mug of coffee. I always use the same mug, switch on the filter machine to let the coffee brew while I start on my first draft. By the time that magic sound of bubbling and spluttering finishes, I have usually finished the draft but funnily enough the other night when I was writing my Wobbly Table blog, something went wrong. I could hear the water filtering through the coffee grounds but there was no final splutter. The one thing every coffee addict dreads, my trusty filter machine was not working anymore and I had a bit of a dilemma. To try to fix the machine I was going to have to switch it off which meant that my freshly brewed pot of goodness would go cold. But being a sort of sensible girl, the first thing I did was hit save on my Blog and then turned off the coffee machine. I took all the filters out, cleaned and washed everything then filled it back up with just water and switched it on with bated breath.
While I stood there watching the water drip through, I kept thinking again about the wobbly table and that this was yet another thing that I relied on being there that was possibly no longer working. The next few minutes were agony, every little drop of water that went through was painful, the thought that the next morning I would not be woken by the burbling of freshly brewed filled me with dread. It got me thinking again about the things I take for granted and rely on to work, especially in the mornings. My two alarm clocks, the coffee machine, my iron and my hairdryer are all part of my routine. Take one thing away and the morning goes to pot and my day starts off badly.
It’s like the train that gets cancelled or the bus that is ten minutes late, you never get that time back and end up behind in your normal days work or being late for dinner! We rely on so many things working every day that when they don’t chaos can reign. How often have you looked at your laptop when it announces NO INTERNET CONNECTION and thought that is it, my life is over? Well as I sat there watching tiny drip after tiny drip of water splash into the coffee jug, I was filled with a sense of dread and fear. Would the world be ready for a caffeine-less me in the morning? Would I last till I made it into the City Centre to get my fix? So many thoughts going through my head and all over a stupid filter machine. I distracted myself by finishing off my Blog. Just as I hit send, there was an almighty eruption behind me. I looked round and there was a strong steady flow of water going into the coffee jug. All that worry, all that imagined stress over nothing. Everything was in working order again and unlike my wee table, my trusty filter coffee machine was in fine working order.
I guess it is back to that thought of how am I going to cope without …..? When something we rely on being there suddenly stops working we can instantly over react, behave like a nutter and say things we don’t mean when “no one understands”. Life , we imagine, will never be the same again. Most of the time our over reaction takes minutes but sometimes that over reaction is just us being human, allowing our fears to show and our tears to flow over a real concern of missing something that has always worked. We should practice some self compassion and stop beating ourselves up because, yes it might just be a mug of coffee but, it is an essential part of life.
Like the Wobbly Table, I would miss my mug of filter if the machine stopped working but I guess in time I would go out and buy another one. Why then will I not go out and buy another table?
Another question to be answered …
G