I like Starbucks. It is not my coffee place of choice, but I like it here. In fact this morning I am enjoying the warmth of my local Starbucks. It is a cool 55 degrees outside. The sky has blanketed today’s bed of life with a gray quilt with hints of white. The jazz plays in the background and I am getting cozy with Donald Miller and his new discourse on story telling. As I sit I here each person walks through and tries to make sure that their unique voice is heard. They order tall’s and venti’s, grande’s and short’s. Some want room and some do not. Some want whip and some want splenda. Announcing to the world that they would prefer quad shots to double shots. One guy decides not to support the “Meals for Wheels” donation here because the Empire of St. Arbucks does not support our troops. Yet ironically he is in here spending his hard earned money on their caffeine drips for his soul. I chuckle to myself watching all theses interactions. Even as I type, my favorite personality just walked in. A coffee shop Starbucks rookie. She is trying to find her unique voice and is fumbling through her order. She cannot seem to grasp that a tall is small and a grande is a medium. And now she just asked “what the heck does venti mean?” All of this makes me laugh. Why you may be asking? Well, great question. The Starbucks Syndrome goes way deeper than just the local coffee shop in your neighborhood with a little mermaid on a green and black light up sign. The Starbucks Syndrome is the essence of our lives.
We are all walking into parts of life and trying to find our unique voice. We are all trying to let people know that “I am uniquely me”, while in essence we are all simply imitating everyone else trying to be uniquely them. Sure we may in essence ask for less or more of certain ingredients of life, but are we all not simply living life? No matter how you order it up, you and I are all living…well…LIFE!!! You know the interesting thing about Starbucks, is once people find what makes their pallet melt, they usually will not try anything else. For me it is a quad shot americano with four splenda. Nothing fancy, no glitz, but it is me. I like that the barista knows the order before I even let those words dissipate from my mouth. Why I am so afraid of change? Honestly, if I change, maybe my voice will not be so unique. This is what causes us to get comfortable with our order of life. We think that we have it all figured out. People know our name, our order, our voice…sometimes before we ever enter their room of life. If we change our order of life, are we risking our voice not being unique or known. We are risking not liking the taste of the unfamiliar. I mean sure, a pumpkin spice latte life sounds adventurous, but what if I don’t like the taste of this flavor of life as much as I like my quad shot americano with four splenda life? What if it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth? What if everyone else is drinking from a pumpkin spice latte life? Does that lessen the value of my new flavor?
Now you may be thinking what does this crazy rambling about flavor and life really mean? You may even be thinking that I need to stop forcing something to sound witty and creative and just spit it out (no pun intended). Here is the point. Just because your flavor may seem unique to you, someone else is likely drinking from the same flavor. However, everyone of our cups is different. Every ounce of liquid in your life is unique to you. Circumstance may be similar, but it is uniquely you. Think of the coffee. The grounds and the water mix. Even though they come out of the same filter, each one of those grounds is uniquely itself. Each drop comes with a little different make up than the others. So in essence, even though your life may come from the same filter as others, it is still YOU!!!
LIVE TODAY AS YOU!!! DON’T FOCUS ON EVERYONE ELSE’S DRINK TODAY!!! BE THE FLAVOR YOU WERE CREATED TO BE FOR THE WORLD AROUND YOU!!!
LET'S SOCIALIZE