Hippylostintime’s Weblog

So, Friday was my last day working at Starbuck’s.  There’s a new company policy that says you are “part-time” if you work three shifts during the week, or 16 hours on the weekend.  Well, I’ve done that gig before.  And that, combined with homeschooling four children, teaching at support group, helping ferry the kids to their numerous “things” (right now — basketball, teen choir, birthday parties, visiting friends), and helping the big boy get ready for his time in Chicago, and scholarships, and … you get the picture.

Starbuck’s was an absolute live saver for me.  I came into the job about a year after we moved to our current location.  As I’ve written over and over again, no part of me wanted to be here.  It was a bad break up from our last community; it was a lot of crap between the spouse and me; I was so trying to find myself amidst the carnage.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted — but I wanted something, anything that was different than I had.

Along came my life as a coffee maven.  I really enjoyed the challenge.  The work was simple.  But the experience, the knowledge, was something new for me.  I embraced the “Starbuck’s culture,” and it embraced me.  It wasn’t always fun, but a lot of good things came from my time there:

* I learned I could “make it” outside the four walls of organized religion just fine, thank you very much.  My job helped me overcome my religiously altered reality about “those people,” and helped me really start caring about people again.

*I learned that’s it’s OK to enjoy some of the “finer” things in life.  That I didn’t have to settle for “crap coffee,” or superficial conversations, or just finding out about religious things.  There is a huge, beautiful, scary, fascinating and amazing world and Starbuck’s is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

*I learned that I can be “someone” apart from my husband and kids.  That people could like me, not because they had to, but because the simply did.

*I learned that there really isn’t an “us” or a “them”.  There is a “we,” and we share this life and share love and share the earth and it’s best time we stop drawing so many lines of difference, and start drawing more circles of inclusion.

*I also learned that things come and go.  And right here, right now, is my time to leave Starbuck’s.  It’s time to come into something else, whatever that else might be.  Time will tell.  I’ll let you know.

So now, I’m traveling on.  I’m laying low over the holidays — actually, that’s not true.  I’ve already taken a test to possibly work with the Census this spring.  And if that doesn’t work out, I’ll probably be writing for a local newspaper.  Or working on that next book.  Or … we’ll see.  As crazy as it seems, I’m pretty happy with the person I’ve become, and the person I’m becoming.  I’m not there, by any means.  But the journey I’m on is filled with interesting people, great opportunities, and the ability to tell good coffee from crappy stuff