Each Sunday during Bible class, whoever is teaching will ask if there are any announcements. Frequently, someone will speak up about a charity event or a theatrical production or a lecture series happening around town. And every week, a female voice from somewhere in the room will pipe up, “We’re having coffee.”
This started three years ago when Jana decided the women in our class should have a place to hang out and just talk, and get to know each other. We have great fun on Sunday mornings, but when our class size exploded and we moved to a larger room, you couldn’t talk to everyone any more. So Jana announced one Sunday that she’d be at a local coffee house one night that week with a book, and any women who wanted to could come to just talk and hang out. (The book was for insurance, in case nobody turned up – but I don’t think she ever even got it out.)
Well. Three years later, we have a solid core group of regulars and a few semi-regulars, plus visitors who drop in occasionally. (The guys in our class keep threatening to gate-crash, but so far they never have.) We gather around the low coffee table by the back window at Mezamiz; some of us plop onto the sunken green corduroy couch, and others pull up chairs and perch nearby. We eat warm scones and chocolate-chip cookies, soft and gooey on black plates; we drink tea and chai lattes and hot cocoa and Italian sodas and espresso shakes (most of us, ironically, don’t drink coffee). Some of us (Abi, Bethany and I) knit or crochet; Amanda sometimes does henna designs; we show off projects or trade books or pass around photos. And we talk.
Oh my, do we talk. And talk. And talk. About movies and books and spouses and children and families and jobs and housework. About projects and travel and shopping and church and what was said in class the previous Sunday. We trade stories and tell jokes and wait eagerly for the newest list of questions asked by Edward, Amanda’s little boy. We yammer away until 10:27 or so, at which time Christy comes around and says, “We’re closing in three minutes, everyone.”
These women are my sanity, my soul-sisters, my affirmation group, and I count all of them among my best friends. My “coffee ladies” are one of the great treasures of my life. I am SO thankful for them.
Happy Love Thursday, everyone – check out Karen’s blog for more pictures and stories of love.
cakes, tea and dreams 
Katie, I love the way you write. You have such a deliberate approach to life, and it’s inspiring. These Thursdays sound heavenly, and I’m glad you have them!
a great tradition! Happy Love Thursday!
This sounds charming! If I’m ever in Texas, count me IN!
I just love times like that!! There is nothing quite as sacred as sharing in these tradional, set aside times in a week. I agree that there is indeed a place for them on this journey of life. Times of sharing, communing, ‘being’, and listening are times when my soul is most at home and most hidden in the Father’s heart. I just love how He created you, Katie!
I’m so glad when I went that first night that I didn’t get a chance to read my book.
Ditto Katie! You have captured what it’s all about. Coffee night is always a highlight of my week – what a blessing to be part of it!
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