The best conversations happen over coffee. Or tea. Or hot chocolate. But for the purposes of this piece, I’m going with coffee. I truly believe the world would be a better place if everyone sat down to drink their coffee. I don’t mean sitting in your car on your way to work, mostly because I don’t think we need to define living on the edge as experiencing bowel-related distress on the freeway after consuming a venti dark roast. 

There’s something about coffee shared with friends, sipping out of a real mug and having life-giving conversations. Not just sharing the latest gossip or giving surface level updates, but talking about the things you’re in the midst of learning, what’s in your heart, on your mind and just viewable on the horizon. The best beverage-fueled discussions are the ones where you dream. The best coffee is the cup you enjoy alone, sitting at your kitchen table, maybe with a newspaper, and just sitting in quiet contemplation. The best cups of coffee, if we have to include to-go cups, are the ones we drink on long walks or after a late night adventure. 

I would argue the worst cups of coffee, aside from just bad tasting coffee, are the ones we Instagram. First of all, I’m uninterested in your low-quality photos of generic latte art. Secondly, can we not even enjoy a simple mug of liquid gold without documenting it? In the name of being present and turning our everyday moments into mindful meditations, let’s slow down and smell the coffee beans as well as the roses. Let’s use coffee to fuel our futures and not our Instagram feeds.