This morning on our riverwalk and observing the sunset, reflecting and taking it in we stopped by a small coffee shop. The business, a moving trailer was retrofitted with a full barista bar and the opening was a tiny open source library. A few items to note:

  • Every conceivable coffee and specialty drink could be prepared
  • If you only focused on the interior and friendly customer service you wouldn’t think you were ordering from a trailer
  • The open library provided the ability to read while your drink was prepared and $8.00 if you chose to buy it

As I talked with the owners, I picked up several books to skim through, including Hoyle’s Rules of Games by Albert Morehead & Geoffrey Mott-Smith, 1215: The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham, and Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl.

In Frankl’s Foreward a few parts stood out:

… they [Jews at the hands of the Nazi] died less from lack of food or medicine than from lack of hope, lack of something to live for

The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her life.

Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.

You cannot control what happens to you in your life, but you can always control what you will feel and do about what happens to you.

I do find meaning in taking in the sun every morning, the birds chirping, the feel of grass on my feet, and that we can do what we want to do and is needed in the world.