Coffee on Wednesday

Each Wednesday I release an excerpt from my upcoming book, Coffee and Me, releasing January 5, 2027. I wrote this one on a Sunday.

Today is the first Sunday of the month, which means house church at our friends' house. It's a wonderful gathering. We all bring breakfast foods, fellowship together, have a lesson, and then take communion.

On first Sundays, I'll usually have one Keurig in the morning and then hold out until we get to their home. Someone always brings one of those Starbucks carriers. I'll have three or four cups, but the cups are so tiny it's probably the equivalent of two of my normal ones.

This morning, I mixed Chobani vanilla creamer with caramel oat milk creamer, and my coffee had a nice taste to it.

Around 3:00 p.m., I started to get drowsy, so why not an afternoon K-Cup?

Our supply was running low, so I headed over to Amazon and ordered a box of 100 for $31.00. That comes out to about 31 cents a cup, which I suppose beats stopping at Starbucks every day, or 7-Eleven, or whatever coffee shop happens to be my choice that day.

For my afternoon coffee, I chose my red Dollar Tree mug that says:

All you need is love and coffee.

After brewing the cup, I went into the refrigerator to get my zero-sugar French vanilla creamer.

It wasn't there.

We had half-and-half.

Heavy cream.

And the dreaded powdered creamer.

But no French vanilla.

I even looked in the trash to see if I had accidentally thrown it away.

I wanted to ask my wife, but I already knew she would tell me to move some things around in the refrigerator and actually look.

My mind started going back and forth.

What happened to it?

Did we use it all?

Did I throw it away?

Then I turned around.

There was the creamer.

Sitting on top of the Keurig.

Had I left it out all day?

Would it be spoiled?

I touched the bottle.

It was cold.

And that's when my mind found something entirely new to worry about.

Wait. I don't remember leaving this out.

Then came the next thought:

Is this the beginning of some kind of memory-loss disease?

And just like that, I was catastrophizing.

I had to slow myself down before one misplaced bottle of coffee creamer sent me spiraling about my future.

It's Sunday. I have the pleasure of drinking coffee I bought at the dollar store, from a dollar-store mug, and — most importantly — I found the creamer.

Maybe that's enough for today.

Where does your mind go first when something small goes missing?