There's no better way to start your day!

I’ve mentioned before that we have several older guys still working here in our company. One who works on a part time basis will be celebrating his 72nd birthday soon. On the days that he works he comes in early and he and I share a few minutes of coffee and communication before he has to punch in. We greatly enjoy our times together. We are brothers in Christ and that is the foundation of our fellowship but we cover just about every subject one might conjure up. It is always a good way to start my day and that’s what I am rehearsing with you on this Friday, June 12, 2009. He was here yesterday and we had a great time of swapping stories and giving testimony to the God who has blessed us so much.

He opened yesterday with a comment about some blackberries he had purchased at the farmer’s market they patronize. This led to a discussion about how wonderful blackberries are. He loves them on his cereal or ice cream. This reminded me of the blackberry cobblers I grew up enjoying. Then he told me about how he and his wife had eaten at a small café that featured home cooked meals. He had the chicken and dumplings along with squash and okra with tomatoes. This led to a forth and back ‘can you top this’ walk down the food memory lane of our lives. Pretty soon we were talking about grandmothers and how their cooking seemed always to reflect their hearts. We enjoyed savoring baked sweet potatoes on a cold day busted open and filled up with real butter. We talked about walking through the back door of the kitchen and being knocked down by the wonderful aromas that filled the room. We agreed that even as kids we would sit down to these culinary delights and consider ourselves to be blessed beyond measure. Many of these menu items that caused us to lick our lips would not be that highly sought after today but my how special it is to remember when love was obvious in the contents of an old black skillet.

We also hit a lick or two on politics and religion, talked about family and even some about the work we are involved in. It was good old-fashioned fellowship over a cup of coffee. Oh yeah, coffee is one of our most favorite topics because he and his wife enjoy it and so do I. I recently got them to try some Community coffee and they are considering whether to make it their regular or not. I had previously put them onto the 8 O’clock coffee brand since it was proclaimed as the number one coffee in blind tests conducted by Consumer Reports. They tried it and fell in love with it. Now they are conflicted between it and the Community. I told him that my attachment to Community is a combination of it being associated with my folks over in Louisiana and the great flavor it provides. He laughs when he says that because of me they ended their twenty plus years of being devoted Folgers drinkers. You can tell our conversations do have consequences! We didn’t solve any great issues of the day. We were not able to change the political landscape we find ourselves in. But as we part each time we always wish each other to have a ‘blessed’ day. Now that, my friend, is a good way to get a day started. May God bless us all as we usher in our Saturday and prepare for Lord’s Day Sunday. Amen. …..More later.