What's in Your Cup?

In my last blog, I brought up the topic of coffee shops. We have been to many coffee shops across the continents. Some coffee shops are rather plain; others go to a great deal of effort to decorate their spaces. It seems common for the purveyors of caffeinated bliss to post signs with various kinds of cute or wise sayings, and that will be the focus of this blog.

For this piece, I will share signs and sayings that particularly relate to the handiwork of the baristas of the world.

I will begin close to home, in the town of Woodlake, a quaint village at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in Tulare County. A coffee shop with the strange name of Munchies can be found on the east side of Highway 245 (North Valencia Blvd.). With a name like that, I wasn't sure whether I was going there to eat or drink coffee. Inside of Munchies you will find a proverb that, even if you disagree with the first part, you may agree with the second.

Munchies Coffee in Woodlake, California

It's hard to argue with the statement that Good Friends are a Treasure. I can also relate to good coffee being a pleasure. But there is such a thing as bad coffee, which is not a pleasure, and fortunately they did not serve me any at Munchies. Because elsewhere I read that Life is Too short for Bad Coffee. That was the sentiment shared on the wall of The Coffee Shop in Mariposa.

Life is Too Short for Bad Coffee

Unfortunately, life was also too short for The Coffee Shop, as I no longer see it on Google Maps. But back to Munchies Coffee. On another wall of that establishment we find a much more bold statement.

Everything Gets Better with Coffee

Everything Gets Better With Coffee, the saying goes. For some, it even improves their blood pressure scores, that is, if you are looking for higher grades.

From Woodlake, we will travel to the north of Fresno to the city of Madera. Madera is one of the many "M" towns along Highway 99: Madera, Merced, Modesto, and Manteca. These are all Spanish words, which translate wood, mercy, modesty, and lard, respectively. (Fresno is also a Spanish word meaning ash tree, but that's a story for another day.)

One day, we were coming into Madera from the east, having taken the back roads from Oakhurst through Raymond. We had already had a picnic lunch at the Fresno River Recreation Area and we were looking for a place that might sell us a blended mocha. We pored over Google Maps and found a place called Charita's. At Charita's they sell ice cream as well as coffee. And they also sell succulents. (I'm not sure what succulents have to do with coffee and ice cream, but that's how it is.)

There was one sign posted at Charita's that used a play on words, Love You a Latte.

Love You a Latte

Well, they did not love me enough to get a free latte, but the blended mocha was good—though perhaps sweeter than we needed. Elsewhere they had posted a rewrite of Matthew 19:26 that went: With Enough Coffee, Anything is Possible.

With Enough Coffee Anything is Possible

Well, Jesus might disagree with this statement, but apparently not everyone does. This statement is also fairly open, because anything could include good things and bad things; wise things or foolish things.

We'll travel up the road from Madera to Mariposa, to the now defunct The Coffee Shop. Their walls had a lot to say about the beverage that replaced beer as the breakfast of choice in Britain many years ago. I'll begin with one of their milder statements: First I Drink the Coffee, Then I do the Things. I like the use of the definite article in this saying. The coffee. The things.

First I Drink the Coffee, then I do the Things

That one was fairly innocuous, but this next one was a bit threatening: Just Give Me the Coffee and No One Gets Hurt.

Just Give me the Coffee
and No One Gets Hurt

I wonder if they ever had a threat like that. Mariposa does seem like a bit of an outlaw western town. Maybe that's why they had to close. Another sign in The Coffee Shop also seemed like a bit of a warning: Drink Coffee—do Stupid Things Faster With More Energy.

Do Stupid Things Faster with More Energy

The last sign I'll post from The Coffee Shop had to do with the aroma of the morning brew—Good Morning: Wake Up and Smell the Coffee.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

With that, we will waft on the coffee fumes over to Thailand, where there are other coffee shops that call out the morning fragrance.

Just up the road to the northeast from Big C in Kalasin City is Ellie Cafe. (The Ellie is pronounced ee-lee with a rising tone on the second syllable.) Their coffee cups shared the same sentiment as The Coffee Shop—Wake Up and smell the Coffee, though it is a bit hard to read the font.

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

To the southeast of the city of Kalasin, in the small village of Dawn Han, Sae Jom Coffee also called out the fragrance of coffee, proclaiming on their window: I Like Coffee—Smell It and Taste It.

Smell and Taste the Coffee

Unfortunately, Sae Jom Coffee seemed to be closed more than it was open, and later on two more coffee shops opened in their village including Order Here Coffee, which I mentioned in my previous blog.

I like coffee, but caffeine really doesn't affect me a whole lot. So while I enjoy a good cup of coffee at the beginning of the day, I can also enjoy one before I go to bed. Most people, it seems, are not wired this way. These folks struggle to begin their day without a caffeine fix. This next group of signs is for them.

I'll begin with a sign we saw at Ban Toem Phlang coffee shop in the village of Thanya, Kamalasai District, Kalasin, Thailand. This coffee shop was attached to a restaurant, but it closed down when the proprietor moved to Bangkok. Life Begins After Coffee is the sentiment expressed on this sign.

Life Begins After Coffee

This same sentiment was shared at Coffee Arigato at the Laem Thong Mall in Bang Saen, Chonburi Province.

Life Begins After Coffee

The folks at De Herdt Gardens in Barrhead, Alberta, Canada, seem even more desperate for their morning brew. "I would say good morning but I don't think I've had enough coffee yet" is the saying of a true addict.

Frazzled Cat at De Herdt Gardens

Other folks may be able to get going without their coffee, but the buzz enables them to keep going stronger and longer. This is the feeling expressed at a coffee shop, whose name I don't remember, in the Com Thong District of Chiang Mai. "Coffee. You can sleep when you're dead," declares the sign.

You can sleep when you're dead!

Chao Yan Yen Coffee (the name means "morning until evening") in Nong Khai puts a note on their cups to remind you that life is short, and coffee will help you stay awake for what little there is of it.

Life is Too Short

There are others who seem to need coffee to get their inspiration. Blue Gold Coffee in the Tha Sadet Market in Nong Khai comes right out and says it: Cup of Your Inspiration.

Inspiring Coffee in Nong Khai

Cake Lamoon Coffee—our favorite coffee shop in Phon Phisai in the province of Nong Khai—puts it a little differently: Great Ideas Start With Great Coffee. These guys started out as a modest shop with a good vibe. Then they made it even better by roasting their own beans and adding a bakery where they make all the stuff they sell. So if you're ever in the area, go get inspired with some great ideas (and great coffee and great food).

Great Ideas Start With Great Coffee

Still others have the opposite idea. Instead of using coffee time to be inspired with great ideas, they recommend using it as a time to take a break from thinking. This neon sign, Stop Thinking, Start Drinking, appears to have been made for a bar, but it ended up in a coffee shop called Cham Cafe in the city of Roi Et.

Stop Thinking Start Drinking

There are a bunch of coffee shops who draw a connection between love and coffee, either the love of coffee or the relationship between human love and coffee. I suppose some people might be challeged separating the two. Anyway, these next images will call attention to these.

Good Time Coffee, a coffee shop that used to exist at the Kasemrad Siriburin Hospital in Chiang Rai, was fairly direct about the relationship between Love and Coffee with the bold statement "Love Coffee" in big letters on the wall.

Love Coffee

Sea Street Coffee in Pranburi (Prachuap Kiri Khan Province), took a cue from the Beatles, "All You Need is Love & More Coffee.

All You Need is Love, Well Maybe Not Quite All

Sweetheat Coffee was a really cute coffee shop in the Chai Wan District of Udon Thani. The decor was full of hearts and similar romantic motifs. One would think that a place like this would draw a connection between coffee and human relationships. But, no, you can skip the love because All You Need is Coffee.

Or Maybe You Don't Need the Love After All

If you can't you have love, then at least maybe you can find happiness. After all, this is the weekend when we celebrate the occassion when our American forefathers wrote about the right to pursue happiness. I wrote elsewhere about a coffee shop that promises happiness in your cup.

Piamsuk=Full of Happiness

Other coffee shops indicate that you may need more than just coffee to find that happiness. At Brown Coffee Bar in the city of Kalasin, we are told that you also need cake: Happiness is a cup of coffee and a good piece of cake.

Will a Cookie Do if I Don't Have Cake?

And if cake isn't your thing, then the folks at this coffee shop at a Caltex gas station south of Chiang Rai would have us know that Coffee with a friend is like capturing happiness in a cup.

Coffee + Friend

And if happiness just seems too elusive for you, remember that You can't buy happiness, but you can buy coffee. Such was the wisdom from Tam Sabay (make yourself comfortable) Coffee in Lat Krabang.

The Best Thing Money Can Buy

Some coffee shops are less philosophical. Hom Kaew, a small coffee stand down the street from where we lived in Kamalasai, Kalasin, stuck with a simple definiton of coffee on their cups.

How Do You Define Coffee?

Well, maybe that is not the definition you might find in Merrimam-Webster, but it will do.

And this coffee shop in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, devoted a wall to the benefits of coffee.

Just in Case You're on the Fence About the Magical Brew

Some coffee shops leave us wondering what they are actually feeding us. That coffee shop in Com Thong, which told us that we can sleep when we are dead, puts this on their cups:

What Exactly Did I Order?

PEA in love! What exactly is in this cup?

Canada's Tim Hortons seems to generate a lot of strong emotions. Some people seem to swear it is the best coffee and others seem to think it gives Canada a bad name. But leave it to Tim Hortons to keep the mystery going: Same Secret Recipe Since 1964.

Not Sure I'll Get Coffee at Timmy's Anymore

Secret recipe!?! I just want roasted coffee beans and water! I'm not a great fan of Starbucks, but after reading this cup, I think it might be a better option.

While we may be confused about coffee and love and relationships and secret recipes and caffeine addictions, at the end of the day, as the Comfy Corner Cafe in Roi Et reminds us, just remember: Life isn't perfect, but your cup of coffee can be.

Life Doesn't Always Go As Planned

And with that, I think I'll have another sip.

Bookends 2022

One way I like to look back at the year is to compare the beginning of the year with the end of the year using photos. They aren't necessarily the first and last photos of the year, but will be within a day or two.

We started off the year with a bike ride. I took Ingrid on a journey to show her some of the places I discovered on some of my morning bike rides. About 6 kilometers west from our house there is a temple located close to the Pao River. Like many of the temples around here, there is a forest associated with it. Someone put a paved walkway through part of the forest. We decided to take our bikes down the trail, but it was a bit challenging because of all the vines crossing the path—the one's pictured here weren't the worst. A few times we had to get off our bikes to get around the convoluted stems crossing the path.

Path Through the Forest Temple Grounds

Later in the day, we went to Doi Chang Coffee that it is on the eastern edge of Kamalasai District. Their coffee is a bit more pricy than some places (though not near as much as Starbucks), but they have the best blended mocha around. There are lot's of pretty plants at Doi Chang coffee, and here we found another vine over the "trail." This time it was the pretty clusters of lavender-colored blossoms of Queen's Wreath (Petrea volubilis).

Queen's Wreath at Soi Chang Coffee in Dong Ling

After leaving the coffee shop, we took a detour down a dirt road that runs along the edge of a nearby community forest. We parked the car and walked down a trail that we spotted. Here we encountered even more lengthy (and knotty) lianas.

Vine Maze

Sometimes the vines seem to bypass the tree trunks on the way to the canopies above, at other times, they seem to want to choke the trees like a woody boa constrictor. Or maybe it's just a love-hug.

Hanging on for Dear Life

Maybe the vines were supposed to be a metaphor for the year ahead—lots of twists and turns in the road but beauty to be found along the way.

• We began the year working on our own, but in May and intern came to join us and help with the work.
• We have periods of excitement when so many people are participating in our activities that it is hard to keep up. Then there are other times when there are just three or four of us gathered for times of worship and prayer.
• On some occasions we are so frustrated we want to just go back to the "normalcy" of North America. And there there are times when we can't imagine leaving our adopted country.
• There are times that we think we have identified a potential leader. And then comes the time when that person decides that there are better things to do than try to follow Jesus.

Amidst all the changes in activities, there is one constant, and that is my companion of the past almost 40 years. I don't know how my wife manages to get more beautiful each year, but somehow she does it. So it was only fitting that we end the year by checking out this new coffee shop:

Gorgeous Coffee in Khong Chai

I'm not sure why they chose this English name for their coffee shop. They don't even have a Thai equivalent or Thai phonetic anywhere. But I suppose our going here also shows another constant in our life: coffee. Both our first and last day stories involve that wonderful beverage.

The flavor of the blended mochas at Gorgeous Coffee are as good as Doi Chang, but they were more watery. They also came in these weird pop-top containers that did not hold as much coffee, though the cost the same. While the idea of this sealed coffee is kind of cute, I don't really care for the resource heavy nature of it with heavier plastic and the aluminum lid.

Blended Mocha from Gorgeous Coffee
Resource Heavy Packaging

Here is the blended mocha from Doi Chang for comparison.

Blended Mocha from Soi Chang

So was last year. While I can't guarantee that the coming year won't have as many twists and turns as the last one—in fact, it will probably have more—the important thing for us is to be following the path God sets before us. And so we echo the prayer of the psalmist:

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Psalm 25:4-5 (NIV)

And we trust in the promise of God:

This is what the LORD says-- your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17 (NIV)

Bookends 2020

What a year it has been. Sometimes my Bookends posts don't vary much from year to year. This year though, is quite another story. This year began and ended in different continents, but that was not how I was thinking it would be. So I think it is appropriate to put first a photo my wife took while doing laundry before we headed out on a New Year's Day outing.

Common Tree Frog Showing Us His Washing Machine

A tree frog—but not on a tree, rather in our washing machine. A tree frog out of place. Perhaps this was a harbinger of what the year would be like with us being "out of place" most of the year.

Tree frogs have a significant role in our lives. My first story comes from Haut Saint Marc, Haiti back in 1981. Ingrid and I were not in a relationship at the time, but we were on the same team. The six of us—a married couple, two single ladies (nurses), and two single guys—were living in tents. We had a communal structure for cooking and dining made of woven coconut leaves wrapped around living posts with a tin roof over the top. We took turns cooking and cleaning. I would get up early in the morning, while it was still dark, so I could head out to the little piece of farmland we had. I made coffee each morning by putting some of our Cafe Rebo roast in the cloth filter and pouring hot water through it. This was long before pour over coffee was a specialty thing in coffee shops. Later that morning, while I was out in the fields, Ingrid was cleaning up after breakfast. When she poured the spent grounds out of the filter, there was a poached frog amongst the grounds. That's why the coffee was especially good that morning. Forget about civet coffee when you can have tree frog coffee. I was admonished by my teammates to check the coffee filter for frogs before preparing the coffee in the morning.

Our Frog Coffee Dining Area

Fast forward a few years. Ingrid and I are married now and we are living in a different part of Haiti. This time we are in a nice house. The lower floor is made of concrete and is well screened to keep the mosquitoes out. But tree frogs have a way of getting in our bathroom. They like our toilet flush tank. Whenever we flush there would be a chorus of frog voices echoing in the tank. We would then remove the cover, grab the frogs and throw them outside. But they would find a way back in. Sometimes they would play voyeur and perch on the shower-head to watch the humans as they bathed. We hunted high and low, but it took a long time for us to figure out how they kept getting back in. When we finally found their secret entrance, we plugged the hole and from then on we no longer had the orchestra play to accompany our toilet flushes.

Back to New Year's Day 2020. Later on in the day, after the laundry was done with the frog surviving the ordeal, we made a drive to a coffee shop we like in Rattanawapi, the next county to the north. As we are prone to do, we find new roads to drive. This time we found ourselves in an area near the Mekong River where it was rice planting season for those with access to dry-season irrigation water. They have a new method they have of planting rice, which is less labor intensive. They raise the rice seedlings in plugs in plastic trays which are placed either on tarps or in ponds. Later the plugs are tossed into flooded paddies. Then the water is let down and the seedlings get established in the mud. The road we drove down had several ponds being used for rice seedling nurseries.

It is a fitting way to start the year. Raising plant seedlings is a very hopeful enterprise. One does not go through the effort without hope for an abundant harvest. And so we are hopeful, too. Hopeful for what a new year will bring. Hopeful for what a new season in our lives will bring as we anticipate leaving Thailand for a couple months and then coming back to perhaps start something new.

Rice Seedlings in Rattanawapi County

So, how did those hopes work out? Not as we planned, for sure. It's December 31st and there are no tree frogs around because we aren't in Thailand as we had hoped to be. Even if there were tree frogs around, they would be hibernating by now. We felt like hibernating last night. The heater went out in the house we are staying in, so the previous night was a bit chilly, but not too bad. I got up early so I could do a grocery run to Winco before the crowds show up.

Maybe we could jump to December 31st and just skip everything in between.

New Year's Eve Day finds me sitting in our Fresno office, even though it's technically closed, in case some UPS or Fedex deliveries come that we are expecting. I spend the morning working on getting things ready for our return to Thailand—making copies, printing out forms, etc. In the afternoon, I decide to scan some old black and white negatives that I have. Most of the photos I took from Haiti were color prints or slides, but I did shoot a few rolls of black and white on my old Canon AE-1 camera. There were a few photos I couldn't quite figure out what they were just by looking at the negative without a magnifier, so I scanned them anyway, to see what they were. And I'm glad I did. It was a series of a couple of girls sitting on a concrete and stone irrigation canal doing laundry.

Laundry Day

They actually were nice to photograph because they would sometimes look at the camera and sometimes just do their thing—chatting and laughing while they rubbed the dirt out of the clothing. The lives of these children are not easy and I don't think that doing a load of laundry is high on their list of things they want to do to pass time. But it helps to bring a friend. With a friend, even the less enjoyable things in life can be a lot easier to get through.

This past year has been full of challenges. Being displaced for nine months. Leaving our house to the whims of rats and lizards. Missing out on major events in the life of our church in Thailand. Extra hoops to jump through and expenses to shell out to try to get back to Thailand. But through it all I've had a friend. Two friends, actually.

My wife has been my faithful companion by my side through it all. When one of us is feeling down, the other can help lift us up. And God has not abandoned us either. God has been there to encourage us and help us through the hard times.

Scripture reminds us: Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 (NLT)

Even if our year wasn't as we planned. Even if there were a few hiccups along the way. We made it through, with God's help.

And with no frogs in our coffee.

Cup of Happiness

One of the premises for the founding of my home country is that all people have the right to pursue happiness.  (No guarantee that you will find it but only that the government shouldn't stop you from trying.)

One of the popular promises of the current government of Thailand is that they want to return happiness to the people.

Everyone, so it seems, wants to be happy.

Why wait?  Your opportunity has come!

A little over a year ago, a new coffee shop opened in Wiang Kaen.  It is the most expensive coffee shop in town, probably out of the range of most of the people in the waiting area of the hospital across the street.

But it is a coffee shop.  I mean, there might be a couple of tea items on the menu, but mostly they sell coffee.  No cake.  No cookies.  No biscotti.  The decor of this place tells you that this place is about coffee.





And the coffee is good.  Flavorful.  Not bitter.  And they make it the way I want it.





The decor is a bit different.  There is a book theme going on.  There are lots of books--real books--not just the borderline porn that passes for popular magazines that you find at the other coffee shops.







The name they chose for this place: เปี่ยมสุข - piam suk.





Which translates: cup of happiness.





The problem with my cup full of happiness is that an hour after I start drinking it, it is not merely not full, it is rather quite empty.

So much for my happiness!

So where do I get a cup that never runs out?

Jesus said there are two things we need to do to keep our cups full: ask and abide

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
     John 16:24 (ESV)

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
     John 15:7-11 (ESV)

Jesus promises something that Piam Suk, as good as it is, cannot do.

A full cup.  Forever.

Take a big sip.  It's still full.  The ultimate bottomless cup.

All we have to do is abide and ask.

And not only enough for us.  There's some to share as well--because our cup overflows.  As King David wrote at the end of one of the more famous passages of scripture:

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
     you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
     and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
          Psalm 23:5-6 (ESV) 

Now that's a good cup o' joe.

IQ?

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 (ESV)

Recently, my brother made a post about IQ.  I haven’t read it yet, but it got me thinking.

I, too, have an IQ.  I’m sure of it.  But I’m getting older and I can’t always remember where I put things.  So, if you see my IQ lying around somewhere, please let me know.

I always wonder about the way we measure our smartness.  Is smartness the ability to make good decisions?  Then, in that case, I know I have that ability because I have done so on at least two occasions in my life:

1. The decision to follow Jesus.
2. The decision to marry Ingrid.

After that, I’m not always so sure.

Is smartness measured by the facts we know?  In that case I know all the important facts I need to know:

1. I know my wife’s birthday.
2. I know our anniversary date.

Facts beyond that may or may not be worth remembering.

Once we went to a church where we met this really awesome woman.  She was not in any position of leadership.  She was not highly educated.  She did not have a high paying job.  She was perhaps not, by some measures, one of the brightest persons in the church. BUT (and this is REALLY important)—she led more people into a relationship with Jesus than anyone else in the church.  She was active in reaching out to the disenfranchised people of the city.  When the crowns are passed out, I’m sure she will get a much nicer one than I do.

My IQ might be higher than hers, but she is far smarter than me.

In the internet era, but long before the days of facebook, I once took an online IQ test.

I passed.

Meaning that after I answered a bunch of silly questions, I did NOT click on the link that would have given me the opportunity to forfeit some of my hard-earned money in return for which someone would tell me what an awesome person I am.  Anyone who would do that must not be very smart.

I know I’m an awesome person.  I don’t need to take a test to tell me that.

You are an awesome person, too.  I tell you that for free, and without your having to take a test.

By the way, the number I got in return for answering the silly questions was 135.  This is a really cool number:

     1+3+5=9
     1x3x5=15

     9x15=135

(My wife got a higher number and she can’t do that with her number.)

I’m not sure what the number means beyond that. I can't even get a small blended mocha in Starbucks in Thailand for 135 baht.  But I can get 3 large ones at our local coffee shop for 120 baht.  That's right--40 baht each.  And it tastes better.  And it's locally grown.  40 vs. 145, your choice.

40

Now that's smart.