This morning I did as I always do, and headed to my favourite coffee place on Bull Street. It’s how I start my day, my week, any big project I’m wanting to tackle, a new poem I’m trying to write, anything and everything starts right there. I work/study ‘from home’, but see there’s a bed there and somehow, someway, naps always seem to get in the way of productivity. I’m also a certified coffee addict so the one sure fire way to get me to leave the house in the morning is the promise of delicious cold brew. I’ve always been an advocate for the fact that your morning habits and rituals are so much more than the mere motion of starting your day off on the right foot. We get attached to our routines, they become part of the person that we are, and actually form a huge part of our identity. But when was the last time you thought about the role of the wonderful people who work at your favourite establishment play in your life? What do they mean to you? And have they in fact, become your therapist?
Hi, I’m Laura and my barista has become my therapist. Yeah, there it is, I said it. I mean one of my baristas is also my mate and she’s super wonderful and I’m very thankful for her presence in my life, but how’s this? I’ve spent more awake hours at my favourite coffee place then I have at my own house and I’m still not sure how I feel about that yet. Actually there’s coffee and snacks there, which is more than I can say for what my fridge looks like so I think I’m ok about it. It also means I spend more time with the awesome people who make my coffee, then I do with literally anyone else. Sure some days, I’ll sit quietly and go about my business without really talking to anyone, but most mornings I tend to sit at the bar and spill my guts for (many) an hour or so.
I’m usually a really private person, (except when I’m writing) but for some reason, over coffee every morning I seem to be able to spill my deepest and darkest with absolutely no trouble at all. Not only this, we also start to workshop solutions to all the comings and goings in my life and how best to navigate the chaos that is my mind. Am I the only one in this? Surely not? It might not be your barista sure, it might be your bartender, or your hairdresser, the person you always see working at Coles on a Sunday afternoon. No matter who it is, I feel like we all have a person like this in our lives. Someone who exists outside the realm of our normal day to day, to out pour all of the words inside our minds just to get our daily dose of catharsis. Why is it, that I can sit here and tell things to my barista, so eloquently and so well thought out but I can’t tell the same things to the people closest to me? This is exactly what I’m trying to work out.
I’m not a big airer of dirty laundry on Facebook or Insta or Twitter, (ok maybe twitter), but a lot of people do. It’s the society we live in after all, but does this provide us with that same level of catharsis as voicing our concerns to semi-strangers? Does the feedback we receive from these interactions internet based or otherwise, act as the bandaids that hold us and our days together? I know right, I’m asking the big questions here.
Maybe instead of spilling our guts to strangers, what if we spent the time reconnecting with the people we love the most? Maybe we’d feel a whole lot better about the semantics of our lives. And yes I know therapy is expensive, but those people are paid a bucket full of money to expertly listen to your issues. It’s kind of their job. As for me, the people who work at my favourite place in the whole world (there’s coffee there, you have no idea how much I love coffee) are a big part of the reason why I spend so much time there. But, think about this… The next time you go and get your morning coffee, or your hair cut, or buy your groceries or pour your heart out over a glass of whiskey, ask first ‘…and how are you’.
