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The Tao of Coffee

by Robyn M. Speed (bio after article)

Have you ever wondered if there was more to your cup of coffee than ‘just a drink’?

Have you ever wondered what it was that coffee had in common with life itself?

What is it you do when you make a cup of coffee?
· Take one cup,
· Put in a spoonful of dark, bitter powder,
· Add a spoonful of sweetness,
· Pour in hot, clear liquid,
· Add whiteness.

Alone, each item has a complete flavour of its own. The only item that cannot be consumed alone is the bitterness, the coffee powder.

Why is this so significant? Because a cup of coffee represents LIFE, it represents YOU.

You are both the vessel and the contents. You are the one who chooses bitterness, sweetness, life, spirituality. Spirituality and faith (whether it be faith in yourself, or faith in God) are like the milk in coffee, without it the coffee is too bitter and sharp, with no depth to the flavour.

Imagine the cup: when you add the bitterness (coffee) and the 'waters of life,' you have a sharp, bitter drink, with no sweetness, no depth. It is shallow, it is incomplete, it is missing many factors. For some people this may be what they choose, this may be the life they settle for. For others…

You add a spoonful of sugar. With the addition of that sweetness the bitterness is gone! But the depth is still not there. It is still a shallow drink. Again, some people may settle for this. Others…

You add the whiteness, spirituality, belief in yourself, or belief in something greater than yourself, (milk), to the drink. The drink lightens in both colour and flavour. It is rich and deep. It is complete.

The only remaining ingredient that could lift this drink to a new height, that could transform the drink into something more magnificent, is a more intense whiteness, a more intense and undoubted spirituality and faith, a greater passion for life itself, a commitment to your own dreams and goals: whipped cream!

The cup of coffee is perfect without the whipped cream, it can stand alone against the world, and know its glory. But, a coffee with whipped cream is even more magnificent. Once you have known coffee with whipped cream, you will not desire anything less. You will look upon a whipped-creamless coffee and see it as lesser--satisfying, but lesser.

The ingredients in your coffee are YOUR choosing, just as the ingredients in your LIFE are of YOUR choosing. You choose the amount of coffee powder that you add to the vessel, just as you choose the amount of bitterness you add to/create in your life. You choose the amount of sweetness you add to the vessel, just as you choose the amount of sweetness, joy, laughter, love, happiness that you bring into/create in your life. You choose the heat and amount of water, just as you choose the quality of energy you bring into your life through diet, attitude, and addiction. You choose the amount of milk you add to your coffee, just as you choose the amount of faith, spiritual understanding, and truth that you bring/invite into your life. You choose, or do not choose, the whipped cream, just as you choose to believe, or not to believe, in a Divine energy or in your own passions, dreams and goals.

You are all that you contain. Bitterness, sweetness, darkness, lightness, joy, anger, they and their quantities are all of YOUR choosing.

You do not need to put that bitter coffee powder into your drink, but you do so because you find the drink more interesting. You relish the aroma, the flavour, the depth, the intensity of the experience--both of the coffee, AND of your life.

Copyright © 2002 + © Robyn M. Speed. All Rights Reserved.

About Robyn M. Speed

Robyn is a New Zealand writer who currently lives in Singapore. When it comes to coffee and tea she settles for nothing less than a 400 ml vessel! She is a visionary fiction writer and has been writing since...well, since she figured out that pens make marks on paper.

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