This Blog is no longer active...

A Café of Her Own...

for one

This is where I usually spend my Monday afternoons. Sipping green tea or dark, black coffee. Enjoying the ebb and flow of people and their conversations. The low volume jazz music humming in the background. I sit with my notebooks, a couple of magazines and my camera. It is a place where I am free from my homely distractions. There are no reno's, no cat doing laps, no phone... Yes, I canceled my cell in December and I've never missed it. Not once. How many things in my life are ex·tra·ne·ous I wonder?...No issues here, just me freely being me. I am known here and they used to start my drink as I walked in the door. Not wanting to be predictable I changed my "soy chai latte no water extra hot" to the above mentioned. Healthier too...I like the clarity I feel here yet I don't know why I feel clear. Perhaps a mix of anonymity, caffeine and words...When I go here I dress like my artist self. A short green overall dress, leggings, wool socks, boots, a tattered cardigan, bright scarf, fingerless (the shooting fingers like in my banner) gloves. I feel no urge to conform or to impress. I feel safe. So this has become the place where friends will come to speak to me. They know, Mondays at 12. They know I will half listen on these days because it is "me" time. I often wonder about the places we choose for ourselves...Why? When I was severely depressed in my early twenties I would go to a ragged, raw beach just outside the city. I would get out of my car and walk the smooth stones. One in each hand to assure me I was alive, their cool smoothness becoming warm. They were also to anchor me to the shoreline. To keep me safely on the edge...Safely on the edge. What more could one, as an artist, need or want?

Where do you haunt? Why? What is it that you receive from the places you exist in? Does your mood affect the places you keep?

I hope the start of your week was in a place that brings you joy.
Happy Monday.
xoxox

9 comments:

Line said...

this shot is lovely so quiet, have a lovely week too!!!

Abigail Jasmine said...

I love your unique creativity.
Interesting thoughts and lovely photo. It takes me there.
I am still in search of my new dwelling place, since I am in a new land..

*GodBless*loVe*

LenoreNeverM♡re said...

Beautifully written~
Well, my home is my sanctuary...a place where I renew my hopes & dreams.
Lovely new week!
xo

AJ at OFLBlog said...

I have had a number of such haunts throughout my life. Since I have moved a number of times, I have had to abandon old ones and find new. These days (and this may surprise you) it's my office - on Fridays. I have a private law practice and we are closed on Fridays. My Law Clerk has Fridays off and if I am not in court, I love to sit in the office (it's a loft), have music in the background and either catch up at my own pace or do something completely unrelated, like blog or surf the net for interesting photos and read the paper.....my own little private space...ox

P.K said...

A thoughtful post, well written. I like your table. Being a bit of a wanderer, I have a number of cafés that I bring my notebooks to. I chose them for ambiance, availability of a quiet table and light, also coffee quality and treats. There a four cafés that are my favourite places, close to bookstores, and interesting independent shops.

Adrienne said...

I love your place, it looks very cozy. And a soy chai, no water happens to be my favorite hot beverage!

I head for the mountains...there are many places there where I feel free and safe. It never grows old because it's always changing, and it's where I go when inspiration seems to be running low.

MrsLittleJeans said...

Always loved having a private private place and one for regular meetings...need both, need to be alone and need to be with people. The unfortunate part is that they keep changing and I really have to try hard to re-establish. Recently, I have been trapped in the cogs of everyday life and deprived myself of such pleasures...recently for way too long! I am glad you have this wonderful spot!

xoxo

Unknown said...

No beach - I miss it terribly. No soy chai lattes, green tea is a big enough innovation for French cafés and most don't serve it... I love my little home and its huuuuuuge garden, surrounded by fields. When I lived in Paris I frequented all the cafés I could just to watch people go past... It was wonderful. Then one day - I got bored! ME! I never get bored. SO I finally retired to the country. And watch the movements the animals make. Sometimes I reminisce about my café time. Maybe when I move back to New Zealand....

Maria-Thérèse ~ www.afiori.com said...

I have a few places like that. In my town, it's a café where I sit and read newspapers and sometimes come up with ideas for my business. I even have little business meetings with myself there. In summer and autumn, I escape to the beach now and then, especially in autumn where no one else is around. I also have my secret little places in Rome and in London, whenever I go there.