Dear Lydia, This is Coffee
November 13, 2018. By Kyle Worley.
Dear Lydia,
Everyday, sometimes a couple of times a day, you see dad pick up a cup with a handle (we call it a mug). You know how you love the white liquid in your bottle? Well dad loves the black liquid in his mug.
This is coffee.
What's coffee?
Do you know how you see dad smile? Coffee is fuel for smiles.
Do you know how you see dad read? Coffee helps dad read.
Do you know how you wake up crying at 3:30 AM and dad comforts you? Coffee comforts dad.
Your mother enjoys lattes. Lattes are warm milkshakes. They are not coffee.
I drink coffee everyday. But my morning cup of coffee is part of my daily routine. I wake up, take some beans (coffee comes from the beans of a special tree), and put them in a hand grinder. Then I grind the beans up into a powder, you love the sound of the grinder. The sound is kind of like what your white noise machine would sound like if it had a rock rattling around inside.
After I grind the beans, I place them in a Chemex (the best device for making coffee) and I take boiling water (for lack of a better explanation: you can tell water is boiling when it looks like it's angry with you) and gradually pour the water over the ground beans. This makes coffee.
I do this everyday. It's a ritual of sorts.
Our people call rituals, liturgies. Liturgy just means "work of the people." Liturgies are those habits we engage in regularly and that shape us in ways we both see and look past.
You have a liturgy too. Actually, babies like yourself are incredibly liturgical. You repeat the same pattern almost every day: Eat - Play Time - Go to the Bathroom - Sleep - Eat - Play Time - Go to the Bathroom - Sleep...
As you grow up, you will develop other habits. Your habits are always a reflection of what you value.
This means that sometimes, you need to sit down with a cup of coffee and ask, "What do my habits say I value?" You may even need to sit down over a cup of coffee with a good friend and ask them, "What do you think my habits say I value?" Because sometimes our friends see us more clearly than we see ourselves.
But let's make sure one thing is clear, when you make time to reflect on that question or sit down with that friends so they can ask you the question; make sure you are drinking coffee and not some "faux" coffee.
I rarely disagree with your momma, but I have to put my foot down here. If you want to grow into the woman God created you to be: you will choose coffee over warm milkshakes.
-dad
This post originally appeared on dearlydia.net on March 02, 2017.