I get it. Going to local coffee shops is awesome and sitting at the hipster joint with your espresso is the cool thing to do.... I know because I was that way for a long time too. I didn't touch a Starbucks for 3 years. I was the anti-Starbucks snob. Liberal arts colleges can do that to you. But if you want to get real with it, Starbucks not only has great coffee, but it also attracts every type of human being you have ever seen walk this earth. Moms, hipsters, jocks, the elderly, kids, punks, and bums. It's cuz it's good, k? All those people you are bound to run into somebody interesting. The point of this is not to rant about my love for Starbies, but to be a segue into my awesome day.
This weekend I was in Keystone enjoying the mountain air and getting over a cold. It's beautiful there. I started nutrition school two weeks ago at Nutrition Therapy Insitute and haven't really done much to be honest. I got sick during my second week, but thank the lord all the notes and homework is online and I know what to do. So I tripped it up to the mountains and hit up a Starbucks to catch up on homework and reading (one of my assignments is to read Biology of Belief by next week, like what? the whole book? yeah). So I walk into the coffee shop, and of course its crowded and every table is full, so I turned on my social skills and asked a really nice looking lady who had a table for two if I could share with her. She said yes. We made some room, I got my coffee, and I laid out all my books preparing to get work done. I had just bought notebook paper, a Hello Kitty binder (shut up, it's awesome), and new Pilot pens and was ready to take notes for chapter 2. Then some guy behind me asked me, "Oh wow, 'Quantum Healing' huh? Is it good, because I have been wanting to read that!" Of course I haven't started that book yet but his snooping at my table started a great conversation. Not between the man and I, but the nice lady with whom I was sharing the table. She has read all of the books I had out, except the Tao of Physics, because nobody has read that book. Her name was Kimmy, but I didn't find this out until later. She said she was an integrative nutritionist, among other things. We got to talking and I asked her what other thing she did. Wow. Let's see, Reiki, massage, energy healing, intuitive reading, chakra work, and more. So obviously we had a lot to talk about.
I told her that I was a Thai Massage Therapist and Yoga instructor and was going to school for holistic nutrition but I wasn't quite sure what I would do with it yet. I explained to her that I have a big interest in chakras but don't know where to start. I took down some names and after that the conversation just flowed so effortlessly. After about ten minutes of chit chatting about what we did and how we got into it and where we were from, she closed her laptop, I closed my book, and time got lost.
For two hours we talked about our beliefs around food, our childhood, her oldest child who has recently developed some unknown health issues, what I thought of that situation, my relationship with my sister, her new husband, and hopes and dreams for both of our small businesses. Somebody I have never met before, a complete stranger, and she tells me "you are so comfortable to talk to, I feel safe with you, you are compassionate, and that is why people will come to you." Some seriously kind words. Going to get some homework done in a public environment turned out to be one of the most authentic experiences I have ever had. Talk about taking your yoga off the mat. This woman didn't just give me an authentic connection though, she relit my desire to want to learn about nutrition on a deeper level and what my purpose around it is. I gained so much from that conversation, a rare day that will never happen again.
We exchanged information and decided to keep in touch. It's interactions like these that make me remember why I have made all the decisions in my life and that where I am is exactly the right place.
