I made it. I was mentally high fiving myself as I stood behind the woman at the counter to whom the barista was patiently explaining the difference between a cold brew pumpkin coffee and an iced pumpkin latte. Honestly even I was a bit confused…especially since you could get pumpkin cold foam with both.
Before seeming ready to take my order the barista inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly, and managed a mid Sunday morning smile. I returned her e for effort offering with a triumphant order of a hat tall matcha latte with coconut milk. A quick scan of the bar code on my phone and just like that, I was waiting and basking in the fact that I made it.
What exactly did I make it through? Where should I start? The suicidal client? The clients with missing family members? The suddenly homeless client due to a fire?
The anxiety of an anticipated family gathering? Or how about not missing the trolley, to get me to the church service I wasn’t so sure I was gonna attend the night before, and getting to order my cup of green grace aka my matcha latte with coconut milk?
My week and probably yours too, offered no shortage of hard, uncomfortable, not particularly good things amid some seamless and lovely moments. Like returning to yoga, witnessing a few aha moments with clients, the family gathering leaving us with smiles and laughter, and making this homemade fall harvest soup that I love (hello butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, coconut milk, chickpeas, quinoa, curry and other spices). But if I am honest, by the time I woke up Sunday morning I needed something tangible I could count on, and that my friend was the magic of the matcha, or what I’ve come to know as my cup of green grace.
Here’s the deal. When I moved across the country a few years ago and knew not a single soul, I’d take myself to Starbucks and order my green goodness. When I flew home to Philadelphia to see family, or down to California to visit family, or to the Southeast or Midwest for work, I’d go to Starbucks in the airports and in the cities, and order my green goodness. When things out west went debilitatingly awry and I moved to the middle of nowhere Maryland…I’d head over to Delaware for my green goodness. And when the eastern shore of Maryland wasn’t it, and I moved to Buffalo and lived a sweet block and a across a huge super busy pay attention to the lights or you will get hit and pray the guy with the swastika tattooed on his chest is inside and not staring you down the street from Starbucks, there was my cup of green grace. Let’s not count the travel in between and all that delicious warm liquid green. No matter where I found myself, if I found a Starbucks and ordered a tall matcha latte it tasted the same EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Y’all better hear me when I say, no matter what circumstance you find yourself in grace is there EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. There is no situation in life where God is not and where He is so is His grace. I bet you’re tryna think of an exception, there isn’t one. I’ve tried. #fail
I’ve got a lot going on in my corner of the world these days. A lot of dismantling, deconstructing, starting over, and rebuilding, a good amount of traveling, leading, facilitating. It makes me gloriously giddy some days and other days I am ready to just eat wings and pizza with extra sauce and watch early 2000’s rom coms under the covers in my bed. That Sunday morning as I tried to find weather and church appropriate attire, and get out of my home on time to catch my trolley, I knew I was going to head to Starbucks. I knew there was a lot going on and a lot was going to keep going on.That’s just the season I am in. I accept that wholeheartedly. What I am not always wholeheartedly aware of is that in this season there’s grace. And so yes, sipping my matcha reminds me that just like that drink over the years hasn’t changed, neither has God’s goodness, mercy, love, good plans, or grace for me. And, guess what? It hasn’t changed for you either. I have no idea what season you’re in. Maybe it’s a season similar to mine. Maybe it’s slow and dry, maybe it’s a season of preparation, maybe a season of separation. But no matter the season, there’s a tall matcha latte with coconut milk, with your name on it. I mean there can be if you choose to order that. In all seriousness, no matter the season, there’s a grit and a grace with your name on it.
With love,
Grit + Grace