I need to remind myself that, in getting out of the house, I often expose myself to great beauty and blessings.
Yesterday was a day of reckoning with myself and all of my loose ends, among them an overdue shopping trip. I set some lofty intentions for today:
- Get up by the second alarm ring (nearly achieved.)
- Get dressed and out quickly (achieved well enough.)
- Do my shopping (achieved.)
- Treat myself to a coffee from the local actually down though it might seem fancy schmancy coffee shop as a reward (very well achieved.)
All of this before sitting down at my desk to work at 10am. Lofty goals for someone like me, but somewhat to my surprise I got up and got it done this morning, aided by the simultaneously energizing and calming effects of a lovely California sativa.
In the course of these fairly mundane errands, I managed to experience the following:
- Three heartfelt compliments on my Afro, two from Black women, the other from another person of color. One of the women called me "honey" in the course of her compliment; the other asked if it was all mine, and I replied, with guilty pride, "all mine!"
- Two Black women using terms of endearment for me, the first cited above, the latter "sweetheart" coming from the older woman checking me out at the grocery store with the kick-ass pair of brow-arched eyes tattooed on the back of her neck.
- The opportunity to be exceedingly polite and gracious to many people, including all of the people mentioned above, especially the woman at the grocery store who was dealing heroically with fallout from the store's EBT system being down. My mom taught me nothing if not impeccable manners, and it brings me joy to treat as many people as I can with a politeness that I hope communicates my recognition of their beauty, dignity and worth.
- An influx of new knowledge on just how great my favorite coffee shop (Akat Cafe Kalli) really is, accompanied by the pleasure of spending money and indulging in a delicious cold brew coffee with minimal guilt over the harmful impact of my actions.
- Parallel knowledge that the Oakland Indie Coffee Passport as run by Marc at Shift Local might actually be pretty neat, in part because it's run by folks of color from the East Bay who seem to get how hip coffee can be part of damaging gentrification and demonstrate that "getting" via the selection of coffee shops included on their list (one of which is Akat!)
All of that before 10am! I may need to keep this up.
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