I didn’t ask
to play; I was thrown into the game. It happened by accident. My day was filled
with meetings at work, one in person and two virtual. The light was dull in my
workspace. My morning coffee cup held the brown stains of a warm beverage long
gone. My body was beginning to crash.
My desk was
filled with sticky notes. I moved them out of the way and pressed the button on
my fancy desk, raising it until I was standing and staring directly at the
screen. I was in a fight to stay awake, at 2pm in the afternoon, and I was
losing the battle. No, I didn’t say awake late the night before. It must be
that thing they call aging.
An idea hit
me. I called my adult son, “Can you bring me a cup of coffee? You don’t have to
go to the store, just make a cup at home and bring it to me.” I told him the
way I like my coffee – a teaspoon of coffee, 2 sweetener packets, lots of
cream. Oh, and a dash of cinnamon.
Somewhere along
the way my son missed the part where I said a dash of cinnamon. He arrived
at my job in less than 15 minutes with a large metal coffee mug in tow. The mug
was cold to the touch, but when I slid the mouth of the lid open, the scent of cinnamon
drifted to my nostrils. I thanked him and scurried off to my next meeting.
As I sipped
in delight, my co-worker said, “Your coffee smells good.”
I was grateful
to my son for going the extra mile to deliver the coffee, I said, “Yes, my son
brought it to me.”
My meeting
was productive, I was alert, my coffee was delicious, until…I got to the bottom
of the cup. As I tilted the cup on my lips, I gagged, and coughed. It was
similar to that cinnamon challenge going around where people were choking on
dry cinnamon, for fun. I swirled the cup around in my hand to loosen the
cinnamon then took a sip. Same results.
Finally, I
gave up on drinking the coffee to the last sip and attempted to pour the
remainder down the drain. Except it sat there in a clump. I filled the cup with
water, several times to wash away the mound of cinnamon.
I called my
son, “Um, how much cinnamon did you put in my coffee?”
“I opened
the container and scooped out a teaspoon.”
Can you hear
the scream in my voice?
I said, “I
only needed a dash.”
“Oh, well it
wasn’t a full teaspoon.”
And that was
my cinnamon challenge.
The lesson I
learned was that I must speak clearly, be specific, and double check that I am
understood.
What is a
funny challenge that you have faced recently?
No comments:
Post a Comment