…coffee shop reading II

Coming home was the right decision. But I feel like I need to clarify my overall experience at the campground. I had a really good time. The camper was nice, the quiet was fantastic, the only real run-in’s with unhappiness came from a couple stupid neighbors, a bad dream, and a whole lot of rain. And there is nothing anyone can do to control the weather.

Anyway, today I’m back at Grounded Gourmet Coffee (their website really needs some work) in Walbridge. I kind of miss working here. Other than the fact that I just heard a techno version of “Blessed be Your Name” on whatever satellite station they have the radio tuned to, it’s a great atmosphere, great coffee (drinking an exotic Kenyan AA this morning), and they use cups that they wash, instead of constantly throwing away paper cups. Kudos on the environmentally friendly practice!

I’m reading Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. This is a much different read than I have been doing lately. It’s a little less “inspiring,” and a little more “just a really good story.” This book is very much like Blue Like Jazz, whereas it’s so far a woman writing her story, and there are a lot of things that can be learned from it.

That being said, I’m 110 pages into it, and only have two real quotable moments so far, and that’s ok. Anne’s writing style is such that it just draws you in, and this is probably the most enjoyable read so far, albeit the least challenging, of my vacation.

Music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to the mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.

I loved that quote. I’ve often said that if I don’t learn how to play an instrument before I die, I’ll feel like I haven’t accomplished something. I am a huge music guy, I’m a musician, without an instrument. I love music more than can probably be considered healthy, and I feel the same way about it as Anne says in the above quote. I really believe that music is a universal language in which all nations and all cultures can come together.

Anne on grief:

Grief sucks; it really does. Unfortunately, though, avoiding it robs us of life, of the now, of a sense of living spirit.

I thought that was a pretty profound truth as well. I have long believed that life is about so much more than medicating ourselves, or whatever else you can think of to try and not feel pain, anxiety, or stress. I really believe that some of life’s greatest moments can come out of life’s greatest pains. Besides the fact that without these super-lows, we’ll never be able to fully appreciate the super-highs.

I just watched Garden State the other night, so this theme is pretty strong in my head right now, check out this line from the movie:

Large: This hurts so much.

Sam: I know it hurts. But it’s life, and it’s real. And sometimes it hurts, but it’s life, and it’s pretty much all we got.

So I say, enjoy the hard times for what they are… find the truth that God may be trying to show you through them. Because you only get a chance to live here, in this world once. Might as well take it for all it’s worth.