Former colleague and current retired friend Jackie and I made a coffee date for 10 a.m. today at a Starbucks nestled in a large office complex.  We were talking and enjoying ourselves, but then I noticed the long lines that kept growing and the crowd of people bunched up in the middle of the small shop.  I said, “Ten o’clock.  It’s so crowded. We shouldn’t have come at this time.”  To which she answered, “Yes we should.  It’s the perfect time to come.  All these people have to go back to work.  This is a reminder to us of what our lives were once like.”

After that I took renewed pleasure in sitting and sipping as the long lines grew, then stayed even at about 10 people, and finally shortened.  We watched the last of the workers get their orders just in time to return at a gallop to the office.   In the peace of the empty coffee shop we continued talking, sipping, talking, sipping.