...is Grinds in My Cup!

Have you ever had a "grinds in your cup" kind of morning?  What about a "grinds in your cup" kind of day? 

This is the season of lots to do.  I'm sure you're in the same boat I am.  You're running around with a calendar of events and 'To Dos' that's busting at the seems.  Getting yourself out of bed is a miracle, let alone attempting to do something with that Billy Ray Cyrus lookin' mullet you got going on.  There are chores to be done, job duties to be fulfilled, letters to be written and sent, presents to buy and wrap, charities to assist, people to avoid unleashing your wrath on when they run into your heels four times with a grocery cart when you clearly cannot move because of the half-a-dozen people with carts in front of you (grr...poor hubs had this happen).  It's hectic, yet beautiul.  It's messy yet crystal clear.  It's...well...it's the holidays.

For me, the end of my semester is this next week, so I'm facing finals in the midst of all of this, and the two I have ahead of me are a bit heavy handed.  Needless to say, though this is pretty much for every day of my life, I MUST have my coffee to get through the day.  Today, I started out by running around trying to clean the house and brew coffee at the same time.  I'm addicted to multi-tasking.  Hi, my name is Tiffany, I'm a tasking and to-do list aholic!  Can't help it!  Tried to break it.  It's who I am.

I finally stop to get that yum-yum cup of pepperminty goodness and GASP!!!!  There are grinds in my coffee cup.  ACK!  "You have got to be kidding me!"  "All I want is one single solitary cup of heavenly java, and now I've wasted an entire pot of coffee."  HURMPH!  Down the drain it went.  On to the next pot.  It seems the coffee filter folded during brewing.

As the new pot was bubbling, I had time to pause for a moment.  I even laughed a bit as I saw a lesson literally brewing.  How many times do I have expectations of my life, of people in my life?  I tend to expect people to be honest, kind, loving, ethical, to be who and what they say they are, dependable, true.  I expect my life to be happy, healthy, joyous and peaceful.  These are great expectations to have and though I don't think any of them are unreasonable, what is unreasonable is to expect that my fellow human beings and thus my life, will be perfect and unflawed all of the time.  I should come to expect, not cynically however, that mistakes will be made, imperfections to abound, and grace needed.  Every once in awhile, I should come expect to find that someone's filter folded and now I have grinds in my life, in my cup.

The thing is, I'll never like the grinds.  However, I can learn to see that they too can bring about a sense of peace.  Having to take a pause now and again, a pause to reflect on life, a pause to prepare to try again.  The grinds can remind me to be thankful for the times of grindlessness.  You know, life is often messy and rarely perfect.  There are going to be many more times where our anticipated moments of goodness end up filled with the grinds.  What's key is how you handle the situation.  Are you going to give grace to the imperfections, or let the nature of lack of control over the situation consume you with a fire of anger?  Will you, when you cause the grinds to fill someone else's cup, desire to be the recipient of grace or will you want anger lashed at you?

The best part of waking up, today, was grinds in my cup.