You must note the way the soap dish enables you,[…]
The kettle is singing even as it pours[…], the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and seen the good in you at last.
David Whyte, Everything is Waiting for You
My coffeepot, perhaps like yours, is electric with a clock and an auto-brew timer feature. I have never in my ownership used this feature. Until today.
Because of my new work schedule, new commute, and the relaunch of my daily blog, I am currently awakening at 5:30am, and it will have to be earlier once we move from “teacher prep” days to “omigod the students are here!” days next week.
Each morning past, I have woken up, pet my cat hello, and klutzed open the machine’s lid to pour in new water and grounds. (For my own good, I have been forbidden by my boyfriend to brew a whole pot to drink throughout the week via microwave swill reheating…!) This takes about 10 minutes from alarm to first sip.
But, this is inefficient in the industrial, technological age; I need my teapot to enable me.
Last night, for the first time, I pre-loaded my coffeepot with its daily matter and as I pet my cat and yawned in darkness this morning, I was greeted by the glug glug of the machine doing its work. I bumbled into the kitchen, ready to sip.
This may seem simple, banal even, but it’s progress for me. For several years now, one of my aims has been efficiency, effectiveness. Wanting to use the time I have on Earth performing actions that are aligned with who I want to be. I don’t want to be the groggy-eyed medusa filling a daily water reservoir; I want to be the slightly-less groggy-eyed medusa sitting down to her daily journaling, meditation, and blog.
The coffeepot enables me to do this. Enables me to be present in the work I truly want to do (writing, creating, discovering, softening), rather than inefficiently toiling at Sisyphean tasks.
In this way, the coffeepot gets to fulfill its purpose and I, ten regained minutes at time, get to fulfill mine.
Owning Voice 