The Latte Incident

I took one sip of my unusually white latte and was pretty convinced it wasn't a latte at all, just some oat milk in ice.

I'm not usually one to bring drinks back to the counter but I couldn't help it. I told the barista that it didn't taste like there was coffee in it and he offered to make my another. Not without a snarky attitude. He then handed me a drink that was indeed a darker color and I walked away.

But I didn't stop thinking about it.

In my head I created all kinds of scenarios. Was he intentionally messing up my drink? Was he unable to admit he made a mistake? Did I ask for a replacement drink for one that was perfectly fine? It was hard to tell, but now I was on guard.

The rest of the afternoon didn't get better. I found the packages I was carrying inside from my shopping trip to be extremely cumbersome. I had a hard time finding what I needed on the computer to fulfill the order I had received from a customer. When I went to the post office the line was incredibly long and slow. Plus, I didn't have the right forms and ended up not being able to ship the package at all.

But there's one thing that is sticking with me that I'm trying to take to heart. While waiting in line at the Post Office I saw a quote written on the wall attributed to George Washington Carver, "When you have no vision, you have no hope."

It made me realize that ever since the latte incident, my vision was focused on what was not working. I couldn't even see what was.

Like how the line at the post office allowed me to catch up on some texts, how I had some extra and unexpected in come on the way, how my cat greeted me at the door when I walked in, how the sound of the wind in the plants in my yard sounded like music.

Sometimes when you don't like what you see, you need to first look at what you are seeing, and if you don't like it, look for something else.