The world will become peaceful, beautiful and abundant
IF WE USE EVERY SMALL OPPORTUNITY TO FEEL GRATITUDE


A man entered a café and sat down at a table, desperate for a cup of coffee. He placed his order but had to wait because there were so many customers. The man felt impatience rising up inside him. Not being able to contain himself any longer, he screamed at the waiter at the top of his voice: “WHERE IS MY COFFEE? WHY IS THIS TAKING SUCH A LONG TIME?”.

The waiter smiled and produced another menu card. “Perhaps you might like to read this”, he suggested. The man was seething with anger but decided to see what the waiter had given him. He was astounded to read the following:

THE COFFEE APPRECIATION MEDITATION

Expressions of gratitude while waiting for the expresso can to boil
To all these, my deepest thanks;

To the Earth who grows the coffee beans
To the Earth who nourishes the man who looks after the cow which produces the milk
To the Earth who produces the metal ore from beneath her skin
To the Earth who nourishes the person who extracts the molten metal to make the can
To the Earth who allows the extraction of water from her sources
To the Earth who fires the electricity grid which heats the water
To the earth who feeds the person who attends to the coffee machine
To DIVINE CHANCE which gifts us with the time to reflect upon and discover these interconnections on an eternal voyage of discovery.

On reading this, the man was overcome by a feeling of intense gratitude and a great sense of calm. He started to think about the carpenter who had built the chair he sat on. He felt gratitude for those who kept the tables clean and who disposed of the rubbish. He thought about his past and of all the people who had helped him. He even felt gratitude for those he could not remember, but who may have given him a smile or a word of encouragement as a toddler.

This lasted until his reverie was broken by the words “Here is the coffee you ordered, Sir”.