All The Difference

There are days when I know first thing in the morning exactly what to write. And there are days when it takes until the very end of the day to have any idea. Today, it took until the very end of the day to realize that what was most blogworthy was what had happened first thing in the morning.
 
It was a productive day, full of working at home and cleaning (both the short-term and the long-term kind). It was a day of finding things (cleaning will frequently do that for you) and discovering things (when you work without the presence of tech support, you learn to troubleshoot yourself). It was a day when I could say, and see, that I had done a lot of things. But when it came to writing, I wondered what all--or any--of that meant.
 
And then, I thought about what had started my day (well, not quite started, as I began working quite early, but you get the idea). In the midst of the working and the cleaning and the "oh, my gosh, how will I get it all done," I met a friend for coffee. And, in the words of Robert Frost, "that has made all the difference."
 
Now, you could argue that it was the jolt of caffeine that gave me the spring in my step and the energy to accomplish the work and the cleaning. I'm sure that the caffeine didn't hurt. But what really carried me through was the having met in the first place. In the scheme of a busy weekend, it would have been very easy to say "another time." In the midst of so much to do, it would have been logical not to go out at all. Yet, in defying ease and logic, I invited support and understanding and laughter. In spending an hour drinking coffee, I infused my day with the feeling of being accepted--no matter what I accomplished, thought about--even when so many days leave no time for thinking, and important--even when what I do doesn't always seem important. The "all the difference" was not about a hearty dose of caffeine. It was about the dose of friendship that we all would do well to take each day.
 
I would venture to say that I accomplished more today than I would have, had I not taken the hour for coffee and the chance to see a friend. Sometimes the road you take in the morning makes all the difference...