Special Moments (standard:non fiction, 542 words)
Author: Jim Spence	Added: Aug 04 2003	Views/Reads: 4351/3	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
Everyone has special moments in their lives, when they can stop and smell the coffee ...

Special Moments 

There are times in your life when all of your problems and all of your
worries seem to disappear ... even if only for a few moments. 

I was wandering around the local grocery store recently, trying to find
some coffee ... lost as usual.  I'm a man; we can drive a car from 
point A to point B using ten different routes, but we can't find one 
item in a grocery store. 

I found the coffee aisle, walked down it and came upon 659 different
types of coffee.  After five minutes I found what I thought was the 
correct kind and headed off towards the registers. 

Like most grocery stores this one had a coffee section where you could
grind beans into fresh coffee.  Standing in that section, looking at 
the 200 different types of coffee beans that they offered, was a small, 
frail looking older woman, at least in her 70s. 

Apparently she thought I worked in the store because, as I walked by,
she addressed me. 

“Excuse me, sir; is this the coffee that you grind yourself?” 

I told her “yes, ma'am”, without bothering to tell her that I didn't
work there. 

She suddenly looked sad, and said that she had no idea how to grind her
own coffee. 

And then she went on to tell me about her grandson.  Apparently he was
serving in the armed forces, was overseas in Iraq, and was coming home 
in a few days.  She told me how he would sit with her and drink a 
particular type of coffee.  I could tell by the way she spoke that 
those moments with her grandson were special to her.  And why wouldn't 
they be? 

I asked her which type of coffee it was, and she showed me.  It was one
of those French roasted vanilla things.  I took the bag and showed her 
how the grinder worked ... I poured in the beans, I placed the bag 
underneath the hopper, I found out what type of coffee maker she had 
and adjusted it accordingly, and I turned it on. 

It only took about 15 seconds to grind a pound of coffee ... and the
smell was wonderful. 

I took the bag from the hopper and handed it to her, still open.  She
put her nose to the bag, took a deep breath and said “don't you just 
love the smell of fresh ground coffee?” ... and she held the bag up a 
bit. 

So I leaned over and put my head next to hers, as she reached up and
took hold of my arm, and we both took a deep breath of fresh ground 
coffee. 

As I stood up, she still held on to my arm; she smiled and looked me in
the eyes as she said “you're a wonderful young man”. 

And with that, she walked away. 

For a few moments I was lost in one of those special moments.  For a few
moments I stood next to this wonderful lady, and together we got lost 
in the scent of fresh ground coffee. 

There are special moments in your life when you don't think about your
problems, your worries, your concerns. 

You just stop and smell the coffee along the way. 


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