Purposefully Moving Slow
Over the weekend, I finished my most recent shipment from Cometeer Coffee. If you’re unfamiliar with Cometeer, it is a company that ships frozen coffee from award-winning roasters across the country. The coffee comes in individual pods that are thawed and added to hot water (or served cold if you’re going for cold brew). I’m in no way a coffee connoisseur, but I do enjoy the roasters I’ve experienced thanks to Cometeer and I especially appreciate the convenience of getting a great cup of coffee quickly at home.
Since I was out of Cometeer pods and I had time this morning (everyone was still in bed because it is spring break), I decided to bust out my Chemex, filters, and coffee grinder to make a pour-over. A few years back my friend Douglas Boneparth introduced me to the Chemex, which before discovering Cometeer, was the only way I made my coffee. Making coffee with a Chemex is a much longer and different experience than thawing a Cometeer pod and adding hot water to it in a coffee mug. You have to grind the beans (assuming you have whole beans), heat the water, prep the filter and Chemex, slowly add water to the ground beans, and let the coffee drip into the bottom of the Chemex. It’s a process and if you’ve ever seen a coffee lover like Douglas make a pour-over, it’s an art form.
Both result in a great cup of coffee but they could not be more opposite in the experience.
As I was making my cup of coffee this morning, I was able to fully enjoy the longer process of the pour-over. The house was quiet and I could hear the birds chirping outside while the water was warming up. I watched as the trees ever so slightly swayed in the gentle wind (we’ve had crazy wind the last few days in Indiana). I enjoyed the smell of freshly ground beans sitting on the counter. Once I began to pour the water over the beans, I watched as the water bubbled up as the beans released C02 and continued to watch as the water level slowly fell before adding more water. I listened to the first drops of coffee hit the glass bottom of the Chemex and spent time watching the coffee splash as more dripped through the filter. I was fully immersed in the experience of making coffee which ended with the entire first level of our house smelling like fresh coffee.
My experience this morning was meditative–I wasn’t thinking about anything else other than what I was doing at that moment.
When I was watching the wind, I wasn’t thinking about the water boiling in the kettle. When pouring the water, I wasn’t thinking about the work I needed to do before today’s spring break plans. When I was enjoying the smell of the freshly brewed coffee I was just enjoying the smell of the freshly brewed coffee. And when I was done with the process and took my first sip, I realized what today’s Daily Note was going to be about.
This morning’s experience was a stark contrast to my normal coffee routine, which usually takes a few minutes total and is completed in between helping Leo get ready for school. One experience isn’t better than the other–they are just different and appropriate for different times.
There will be situations where you will need to be moving at a faster pace–I’m personally trying to reduce those situations but with three boys, practice schedules, and two entrepreneurs in the house it is inevitable there will be times when Cometeer needs to be the answer (not just for coffee but for all tasks–the rushed experience). And in other situations, you will have the ability to move at a slower pace, taking in the full experience of the task at hand. When you have these opportunities to purposely move slowly, resist the urge to rush through and get to the next thing–you will have the urge to rush because our default state in today’s world is “hurry”.
I won’t be going back to using my Chemex to make my morning coffee when school is back in next week. But, I will look to enjoy the experience of making a pour-over instead of the quick Cometeer coffee when the opportunity presents itself.
See you tomorrow and keep pursuing,
JC
