Perfection, Expectations, and Lattes

It was a gorgeous, fall September day, and we were in San Francisco on a business trip.  The weather was seasonally warm but not hot.  The flowers were in bloom and were fragrant.   I was fully taking in all the beauty the city had to offer  with my eyes and camera and was super excited to scope out and partake in a latte from a coffee shop I had been following on Instagram. Their latte art was so amazing and I could not wait to have one!!!  

Arriving at their coffee shop, I was smitten.  It was filled with people, and brimming with clean and bright light.  

Excitedly, I ordered it. That beautiful latte I had been waiting to see and taste....  for months.  

It came out.  SWOON.  PERFECTION. 

I took a few glorious sips....Then this happened....

My newly nine year old son, picked up the tiny gold spoon that came with it and......he SWIRLED it. "Aren't the colors so pretty swirled all together, Mom?"

Here is where the story gets interesting.  As a recovering perfectionist, I would have allowed this experience to ruin my experience, my day, and if I'm really honest it could have in the past, embarrassingly, it could have colored my whole entire trip. 

Internally, I had high expectations of this latte experience and it had all been colorfully swirled by a curious nine year old boy.  And he thought he had made it even more beautiful.

 My "ruined" latte didn't magically change composition.    It still tasted just as delicious. 

And I discovered that day something way more beautiful than latte art...I uncovered how far I had come in my journey that I could see and allow this to be what it is.  

Even though it wasn't my default per se, I could choice to see the beauty in the swirls and savor ALL this experience had to offer.  

You see I have now come to savor small pleasures.  To see the beauty in the messy, in the obstacles, or in the swirls of both lattes and life.  

As I was pondering on the experience the next morning, I was thinking about maybe this is what is meant by "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and how our expectations can rob us of joy and quite frankly relationships.   In the release of expectations (known and unknown) we can find and savor the joy of what is.  That latte tasted no different swirled than it did as a pretty peacock.  

So here I am months later , remembering this latte with so much gratitude of the work I've done and progress I made in my journey that is allowing me to help others do much of the same.   A life full of mess and beauty and memories to be savored rather than a cup full of swirled regrets.