For my first artist date, I decided to do no #25 from my artist date list of ideas.
There were a lot of resistance, and it felt the easiest from the list, and yet when I reached the coffee shop parking, it felt like an unusual void to walk into the shop alone. It made me see that how spending time with my artist child is such a scary task. And for this reason, I avoided going to coffee shops alone for the longest time.
As I observed all these feelings and thoughts, I kept walking inside the shop, placed my order of hazelnut cappuccino and found the “best place” to be seated. I was carrying the artist’s way book and my artist’s way journal to review week 1 and to do a quick read of week 2.
But after being seated, I didn’t feel like taking out either of them, and just kept watching the ambience. Young lovers engrossed into each other’s eye, some lone soldiers like me sitting with their laptops open. Then i observed the employees of the coffee shop busy making coffee, and the overall vibe of the place made me feel comfortable gradually.
I wanted to soak in the feeling of the moment instead of burying my head into the book.
I knew I had to spend 2 hours with me, and it’s only been 15 mins. The censor kept objecting that it’s nearly impossible to sit with yourself without doing anything… do something… keep yourself occupied.
I ignored it.
My coffee was served and I asked the attendant about the “manual brewing” board I could see at the counter. He explained today being the International coffee day, they are giving demo of manual brewing to interested people. He said, if there are more people interested, then he would call me for the demo.
And he did. After 10 mins while I was enjoying my coffee still sitting with myself without any activity.
I went up to the table where he was giving the demo, and there seated was an Indonesian couple with their daughter. We were the audience for his next demo. He showed us manual brewing and kept explaining everything every coffee brewing in his broken yet confident english. I loved his innocence and his passion for coffee.
In the middle of session, my inner critic asked why am I wasting time here when I’ve so much to do…. And I answered it back, that it is my 2 hours of quality time with my artist child and that she is happy watching someone brew coffee. Finally after almost 20 mins the session got over.
I returned back to my seat, and pulled out my journal and reviewed the week 1 and did a fast reading of week 2. By this time my 2 hours of artist date was over.
It felt like an adevnture because not knowing it’s an international coffee day, I ended up in a coffee shop and then situation brought an incident I least expected. I got to do a bit of that and a bit of what I had planned. Satisfied, I returned home, only to dread what am I going to do in week 2.
