Everything Happens in Starbucks

February 4, 2010

starbucks-740160I don’t mean to eavesdrop but I love people and being engaged in life, so I can’t help myself.  I tend to to listen in when I hear juicy bits of conversation, as I did this morning at my local Starbucks and boy was I glad I did!

I met two of the most wonderful ladies - women that are icons of a bygone era and role models of another way of living that we are dearly missing in this modern hectic world.

I tuned in betextingcause I overheard one of them talking about trying to text on her cell phone.  She was telling her friend that she needed to look in the manual to figure out how to do it.

I chuckled to myself because I could totally relate.  When I bought my ‘little phone’ - aka cell phone, I had to beg a male friend of mine to meet me for coffee just so he could show me how to use it!

We are folks of another generation, one in which gadgets of this kind were not automatically attached to our ears at birth.  As I turned to look at them, I chuckled and they might have thought I was laughing at them but I wasn’t.  They said, “We’re not so good at this stuff.”

I told them that I hadn’t been good at ‘that stuff’ either and that we of another generation are all of a similar predicament.  We come from the days before there were even answering machines.  So we are all bewildered by this new technology.

We got to chatting and they were just delightful.  I told them my story of being a former-technophobe (which I wrote about some months ago), until I took a course called, “Become A Blogging Maniac” with my wonderful mentor Bea Fields.  That is how I advanced my business and propelled myself into the 21st century at the same time.

They were interested to know how it worked for me.  I was excited to tell them that I’ve had over 5,000 visitors on my blog in under a year.  I get nearly 900 visitors a month!  Isn’t that amazing?  And the best part is that it’s all from the comfort and enjoyment of my own home (or a local Starbucks) instead of trekking God knows where to drum up business.

twitter_facebookThey were intrigued and wanted to know more  about how it works.  I told them about Facebook and Twitter thinking they wouldn’t know what the heck they were, but I found out quickly that these are not your average golden-aged ladies.  They are women with a great sense of adventure.  One of them uses them both and so I got right on Facebook and made her my new friend!  Love it.

They told me that in their era they were never encouraged to believe that they could do anything.  One of them said, “We were told we would be taken care of.”  Wow that really hit home.

They told me stories of ironing their napkins and polishing their silver and I felt this deep longing for the elegance and thoughtfulness of another time.  Hearing their stories, I fell in love with them both instantly.  They are truly gems of another day gone by.silver-and-linen

This made me realized that I need to capture their stories.  We need stories like these to remind us of the elegance of living.  Right then and there I decided that I am going to film them and share their stories.

Aren’t you eager to hear what they have to say?

So stay tuned for the wonderful stories of the two beautiful ladies of another generation that I met in Starbucks!

Everything happens in Starbucks folks.  If you’re willing to eavesdrop just a little, you can meet the most wonderful people.  Today go have a Starbucks on me.  Eavesdrop on some neighbors and see what magic might happen right in your local coffee shop.

Yours in sharing the stories that make life rich and meaningful,

Annie

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Posted by anniehart | Filed Under Blogging, Stories of Real Life 

Comments

One Response to “Everything Happens in Starbucks”

  1. Anne on February 11th, 2010 12:59 pm

    Hi Annie!

    Neat story. Each person has such a story!!
    You might be interested in the website, http://www.6billionothers.org/index.php

    “In 2003, after The Earth seen from the Sky,
    Yann Arthus-Bertrand, with Sybille d’Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire, launched the project “6 Billion Others”.
    5,000 interviews were filmed in 75 countries by 6 directors who went in search of the Others.

    From a Brazilian fisherman to a Chinese shopkeeper, from a German performer to an Afghan farmer, all answered the same questions about their fears, dreams, ordeals, hopes:

    What have you learnt from your parents? What do you want to pass on to your children? What difficult circumstances have you been through? What does love mean to you?

    Forty or so questions that help us to find out what separates and what unites us. These portraits of humanity today are accessible on this website.”

    Look for “Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Editorial” under “The Project” for a description of their process. Quite a project.

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