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Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Cafe

When we had already travelled for two weeks through the beautiful landscapes of Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Arches, Canyonlands, Dead Horse State Park and believed we were only headed to our final evening farewell meal at the hotel, our tour guide declared “I have one last surprise for you!”  And what a surprise it was! We were treated to Colorado National Monument.

The story of the monument is one of incredible perseverance by one John Otto in the early 20th century.  When he came to Colorado in his mid-thirties in 1906, Otto was immediately drawn to this spectacular area.  The next year he would write, “I came here last year and found these canyons, and they feel like the heart of the world to me.  I’m going to stay and build trails and promote this place, because it should be a national park.” Indeed he did.

Otto would put up his tent, build a section of road, move his tent up to build the next section.  This is no small task.  This is an area of desert land high on the Colorado Plateau with sheer-walled canyons cut deep into sandstone and granite-gneiss-schist rock formations.  The high country rises over 2,000 feet above the Grand Valley of the Colorado River.  The scenic Rim Rock Drive now stretches 23 miles through the National Monument.

By nature a recluse, he was willing to speak to reporters and photographers and public officials to encourage support for his dream. Otto conducted tours of the area and began to garner support.  He invited President Taft to come see the area which eventually resulted in a visit from the President.  When Taft did not immediately act on declaring the area a national monument, Otto continued to press him.  On May 24, 1911, the area was at last designated Colorado National Monument and he was hired as the Monument’s first custodian, a position he held for 16 years.   His salary was the “princely” sum of $1 per month. Shortly after the designation was declared, Otto married an accomplished artist from Grand Junction.  The marriage was short-lived as his wife discovered she was not as well-suited to his lifestyle as she had first thought. 

Otto was once described as “a marvelous guide who knew every inch of his monument, which he tended like a personal kingdom.”  According to Wikipedia, among his accomplishments was carving a steep stairway up to the near-vertical ascent of Independence Monument, the largest such feature in the park.  Despite its size, Otto was known to climb to its summit to plant an American flag.

The man’s dogged determination, driven by his love of the terrain and his deep commitment to see that the park be recognized and protected for future generations, is impressive and commendable.  The area, designated as a monument, which does not require congressional approval as a national park does, has averaged 300,000 visitors a year. This year it is expected to welcome 500,000. I am pleased to have been one of them, an unexpected gift.

“Let perseverance be your engine, and hope your fuel,” urged H. Jackson Brown Jr. A worthy directive to consider as we navigate our lives.

The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

I will be on vacation until July 23. Hope to see you then to share experiences from my trip. 🙂

“Freedom is cultivated within.”  So said the speaker on a video I watched last week.  With all the ongoing angst in the world, he encouraged us to recognize that there is, indeed, plenty of suffering, but also much happiness.  When I hear things like that, I often think of a client I once had.  I don’t know how I would have managed to keep my spirits and attitude up like she did.  She was disabled, had no support system, very little money, few resources.  She often couldn’t make it to our appointments but would call me.  Always her conversations included, “God is good all the time, Miss Kath-a-leen.  “All the time, God is good.”

Her attitude exemplifies what the speaker was promoting; that is, that we stay aware of what we are cultivating within ourselves. That is what carries the potential to impact the outer world. 

I think also of Victor Frankl, the Austrian neurologist, psychologist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor.  Frankl famously said: “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s own way.”

As we make our way through a chaotic election cycle, I have considered what strategy I will use to maintain my equilibrium.  There is an approach in singing when you have some kind of “muck” in your throat affecting your voice, that you “sing above it.”  My intention in the coming days and months, and beyond, is to “sing above” the fracas.

I would encourage you to ponder what you are cultivating and to seek a means to live as peaceably as possible within yourself.  Blessings on your endeavors to do so.

The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

A week after I responded to the fellow in my last post with food cards, I received another call from him.  In this case, he was crying hysterically, as he babbled about a flat tire.  I didn’t entirely grasp at the time how vulnerable he was feeling.  But in that moment, I felt great tenderness, unlike the previous week when I had experienced some irritation. 

His van was his only home, a thin shell to protect him from the outer world.  As kindly but as firmly as I could I said, “Calm down,_____” calling him by name.  “We can help you get a tire.”  He did calm down as I explained it was too late to acquire a tire right that minute but we could manage that the following day.  He was able to relate the type of tire he needed and that he had $50 towards paying for it, but not sufficient to pay the full cost.  I told him I would call him back once I worked out getting the tire.  He seemed settled and we hung up.

Later that evening I missed another call from him.  When I listened to the voicemail, what I was hearing was a conversation between him and the police.  I suspect at some point he had become upset again and other campers called the police.   Once again, he was hysterical.  As he begged not to be put out on the street, the policeman gently repeated they were there to help him.  The recording, whether intentional or accidental, let me know he would not be there the next day.  The police department would reveal nothing to me about his whereabouts.  I understand confidentiality.  But, determined to find out what happened, I turned to my “spy” friend, one who knows all the back channels when needed.  I don’t know how she finally gleaned the information, but she discovered he had been placed in a psychiatric facility.

 I have had no further report.  But the experience lingers with me.  Despite my limited ability to impact the situation, I value the shift in my response and a deepened understanding of how vulnerable homeless folks and others on the margins must feel. (I would add that “unhoused” hardly seems a fair description, even if it is presently considered more acceptable).

The author and speaker John O’Donohue has said, “An interesting question to ask yourself at night is, ‘What did I really see this day?’” It was a gift to me to really see my homeless friend that day.

The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Two Cups of Tea

As I considered what I might converse about with you this week, I recalled a book I read some years ago, Pocket Peace.  I leafed through it and was stopped in my tracks by this inquiry:

In what situations am I most likely to stray from my values?

Does anyone really want to go there?  Perhaps not.  Yet it seems important not to ignore such a question.

Confronted with this, I recognize that I am “most likely to stray from my values” when what I want seems more important to me than any other consideration.  On Memorial Day, a Monday, my day off, which also happened to be my birthday, the phone rang. It was a homeless fellow calling the pastor to see if I might offer some help with food.

One of the values I claim to hold is that everyone should have sufficient food to be healthy.  No one ever need go hungry, particularly in a world where so much wealth exists.  Yet I could feel the resentment:  It’s a holiday! It’s my day off!  It’s my birthday!  Of course, I did overcome that sensation to ensure that he had gift cards for the grocery store.  Yet it wouldn’t take a lot of contemplation to identify times when I haven’t overcome my resistance to doing the right thing.  Doing the right thing, and the growth that results, is the desired outcome of considering such a question.  Just as Robert Heinlein wrote: “Contemplation must bring forth right action in order to permit further growth.”

 The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

                Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Cafe

As I seek to shift this column in some way, search for fresh
ways to connect, make meaning, I went back to the original column when I first
launched this blog in May 2020.

“I write as we are living in these strange circumstances brought on by Covid
19. Ironically, we are both pulled apart as a nation and world as the
competition builds for necessary resources and also more connected than ever by this virus. We all struggle to protect ourselves. We all feel the impact of the
world economy teetering. We all face the challenge of how best to cope.

“Years ago I came across the following quote: “It is not the circumstances
in which we find ourselves but the spirit with which we meet them that
constitutes our comfort.” There is fear, worry, grief aplenty in this time. It
is important that we acknowledge them. But we don’t have to succumb to them.
Even as we shelter in place, we can actively seek to bring a hopeful attitude
to our circumstances. What medical developments might be discovered? What
connections might people strengthen with one another? Might we learn to do with
less? Might we find deeper meaning in our lives in a quieter, less busy
environment? Pay attention to where your mind and spirit take you. Then
redirect yourself as needed to a more hopeful space—your very own ‘Hope’s
Café.’”

I write this as we are currently experiencing a recurrence of covid and as
life seems even more turbulent than when I began this four years ago.  In part, I think my desire to shift focus comes from a longing to draw folks nearer together in a period when fear and suspicion seem ripe to take hold.  So I
remind myself: “It is not the circumstances in which we find ourselves but the spirit in which we meet them that constitutes our comfort.”

The invitation is open to share “two cups of tea” anytime at Hope’s Café, or
anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

“Let’s have a cup of tea (or java) and chat a bit.”

“It is foolishness to think that you can leave a place your heart never left,” wrote Craig D. Lounsbrough, a   Licensed Professional Counselor and author.

I once met a young woman who had never lived, never even visited, outside the county in which she was born.  I was astounded.  Travel was a high priority in my family, particularly to my grandmother and to my mother.  My starry-eyed mother’s goal when she married my father was to travel around in a mobile home, while my father took jobs as a journeyman printer.  Her plan was doomed when she almost immediately got pregnant. Had she not gotten pregnant, there was still no hope for her plan.  My father was steeped in the belief that if you were fortunate enough to have a steady job, you should remain with it.  He remained in his work as printer on the Wichita Beacon.

My revised version of my mother’s dream was to have friends located all over the country so I would have people to visit everywhere. This dream of mine has been far more successful than my mother’s.  My friends have kindly accommodated my goal and scattered themselves around a variety of states.

Pieces of my heart are scattered as well. When we allow ourselves to be in relationship with others, when we establish solid connections, when we invest ourselves in living life fully, this heart-scattering becomes common to our human experience.  As another author, Lewis Thomas, has written: “We leave traces of ourselves wherever we go.” 

May the traces we leave enrich those people and places when we travel on.

Let’s have a cup of tea (or java) and chat a bit.

Tucked away in the Note section on my phone, I found where I had jotted “What am I nourishing within myself?”  That would seem to be a question to reflect on periodically since we so easily can get sidetracked from our good intentions.

My intentions are always good!  I will exercise.  I will eat more fruits and vegetables, consume less sugar.  I will meditate and pray daily.  I will spend more time in nature, less time on electronics.  Perhaps you have a similar list.

I recognize a glaring error in that list:  every statement is stated in the future.  It is much more effective to put those in present tense:  I am exercising more.  I am eating more fruits and vegetables, consuming less sugar.  You get the gist.  This gives the brain different material to work with. 

The brain really is a marvelous instrument with capacity to respond to our instructions.  Too often the messages we give our brains are negative and limiting. I can say “ I am such a klutz!” or “I am paying more attention to moving safely.”  Which is more likely to result in fewer embarrassing moments, perhaps even fewer bodily injuries?

These messages can be affirmations that support our growth and wellbeing.  Keeping them simple and specific helps. Posting them numerous places where you are reminded is useful: on your mirror, on your calendar, on your car’s dashboard, anywhere you look frequently.

Some people object that they feel they are speaking things that aren’t true.  The point is to set the affirmations in motion to become true over time and with frequent repetition. But for those who find affirmations difficult, it may be helpful to phrase the affirmations in terms of learning or practicing: I am learning to….say something uplifting to myself daily; I am practicing…to express gratitude daily; I am growing into a meditation routine of at least three times a week. 

The messages we give ourselves don’t even have to be spoken or written.  I once kept a photo of an ocean scene near my office computer.  Every time I viewed it, I reminded myself to be calm, to breathe deeply.

Consider it a regular “wellness check” to ask yourself: What am I nourishing within myself?

“Wellness is the complete integration of body, mind and spirit—the realization that everything we do, think, feel and believe has an effect on our state of wellbeing.”—Greg Anderson, author of The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness

Two Cups of Tea

Let’s have a cup of tea or java and chat a bit.

(My apologies for the previous version. I had difficulty getting it to post and in that process some of it became totally nonsensical!)

We may attempt to isolate ourselves; yet sooner or later we need a sense of community.

In 2003, the movie The Station Agent featured the main character, a dwarf,

who is bitter after years of humiliation and torment.  He is

employed at a store that sells and repairs model trains.  When his

employer dies, the main character discovers he has inherited a piece

of property from him that has an old abandoned train station on it.

 the station is in an isolated place, but with no other obvious plan, he

moves there, in large part because the anticipated solitude appeals to

him.

              Immediately his solitude is disrupted, first by a distracted

woman who accidentally bumps him off the road with her car, and

 then by a young man who parks his mobile hot dog stand near the

 abandoned train station, which the dwarf now inhabits.  The

woman, it turns out, is in deep grief, separated from her

husband since the accidental death of their school age son.

  The young man with the mobile hot dog stand is operating the

stand for his father who has fallen into ill health.  Each of

them is struggling with personal pain of one sort or another.  but

over the course of the movie, the relationships they build with one

another and the community they develop among themselves

become the instruments of their healing. 

              What a beautiful reminder that we have this capacity for one another. 

But even in the best of times we benefit from community.  Last night, a yoga

instructor friend invited me over for her to help me with poses to strengthen

my back.  On the way back, another friend and close neighbor texted to

invite me for a visit.  Before I left, they asked if I had any plans for my

birthday, since Terry is currently out of town and won’t be back till several days

after that.  When I said, no, they offered their companionship for that day.

George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying: “I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as i live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work, the more I live.”

Indeed it is our privilege to be part of the community and to work on behalf of all. Right on, George Bernard Shaw!

This is my 200th blog! This leads me to a story.

When I was in fourth grade, I began to have some interest in writing.  My father, a printer on the newspaper, started bringing home the end rolls of newsprint and I began to write little poems and stories. As a high school senior I edited the school newspaper and later worked on college papers and in public relations departments.  My plan was to get a double major in sociology and journalism.  After I dropped out of college one semester, I couldn’t complete the journalism major and graduate on time. I ended up with only a journalism minor.  When the Kansas City Star was on campus interviewing, I interviewed with them.  But my goal had always been to be a therapist and I followed that dream to get my master’s degree in social work. 

                After a career as a therapist, I developed another dream to pastor and have been blessed on that path.  When I “landed” in Columbus, MT, as a settled pastor, I began to be published in the newspaper.  I discovered a latent dream I have harbored to work for a small town newspaper.

As we prepare to move back to Tennessee, I have been grieving leaving the newspaper behind.  Then I thought, “In this day and age, I could still write for the newspaper if they’ll consider having me continue.”  Well, what do you know?  They will! 

                I have been considering how I might reshape the direction of this blog.  I will keep my kateshopecafe.net address but focus it under the title “Two Cups of Tea,” a play on the book title Three Cups of Tea, intended to convey the image of chatting with a friend over a cup of tea or coffee.   These blogs will be shared in the local paper.  Perhaps I will have the opportunity to write some other things for them as well. 

                I am full of celebrations: my 200th blog, my career as a therapist, my pastoral roles over the years since, and now this long delayed dream to write for the newspaper. If you have joys, accomplishments, whether large or small, I urge you to give yourself credit.  Rejoice in those happy events and  achievements. You owe it to yourself. Consider it a moral obligation!

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Cafe Bonus: “The more you celebrate your life…the more there is in life to celebrate.”—instagreeetings