Coffee Grounds - (Free Write)

I learned something today. 

It was to do with the worry I have about my hands becoming too sore to enjoy what used to be so life-giving to a writer like me: the feel of a newly sharpened pencil pouring words onto a crisp, clean page. Whenever I write now the pencil agitates my fingers the way my wedding ring used to. Blisters used to form under it, and I once believed that was because my skin was too sensitive to abide it.
But I don't really like jewellery.
I do like to write. 
And so I ask myself today, why all at once is the pencil so uncomfortable? 

The answer is trying too hard. Pressing too hard, to be exact. Applying extra so the words can be seen.

I forgot: words aren't actually seen to be truly absorbed, they're felt. And if I go lightly, not forcing the point, they're still here.

And I think one of my favourite smells is coffee and the sound of it pouring is a favourite too. Yet I didn't get my coffee without pressing the grounds.

It reminds of a Zoom call with a co-writer friend, when I started to tell a story he hadn't heard previously about something terrible that once happened to me. He stopped, put down his pen and started to say how sorry he was. I picked up the cafetiere of coffee I had next to me, and I said,
'Don't worry, it's a story. It's not me. 
It's just the grounds at the bottom of a really great cup of coffee.'

Sometimes our will and determination needs to get in the driving seat for the favoured experience. We endure the grit and pain to reach a conclusion, which, with coffee, is the taste of being awake. Alert. Ready to go.

But we aren't the grounds, we're free-flowing liquid.

The quieter, gentler part of us wants to live on the crisp, clean page.
The lighter pencil reaches its purpose painfree and resonant. Feeling through life.
And here's why:

The coffee cup runs dry
while our story goes on.

Steering carefully, waiting patiently, we can carry it all
still with a gentle heart.

**The beautiful coffee mug pictured is handpainted from https://www.lynseyjohnstoneart.com