LifeSoup by Cherie Dawn Haas

If you missed my first day without coffee, click here…

The good news is that I’m still alive, but it was an interesting morning.

At 5:45 I woke to our youngest dog, Delia, whining from her crate. This sparked an immediate headache, mostly out of frustration that I had to get out of bed four minutes early, and fear that she would have an accident that I’d have to clean up. I put my pajama pants on (backwards, in my haze) and let her outside with our other dogs. The headache only lasted about 10 minutes.

6:00 – Made glass of cold water poured over a couple of frozen strawberries. Yummy. Not missing anything about coffee. Began focusing on work.

8:30 – Went outside with my dogs to water the chickens and give them some vegan banana blueberry bars (these weren’t great, which is why my family left them to dry on the stove – all part of my food journey…). One of the chickens got out and for about 10 seconds I panicked, chasing dogs chasing a chicken, with a container of food in my hand all the time. I had to pull it together and think.

As the dogs chased the chicken into vineyard, I saw my chance. I got the dogs inside the house (somehow, Dangit Rusty was the first one to listen to me) and then I headed into the vineyard to find my chicken, thinking, This will be easy now!

I figured the chicken, which we’ve always referred to as “The Real Pretty Black and White One,” would stand out well in the yellow, dormant vineyard. But I didn’t see her, and I didn’t hear her.

I began hearing the song, “Into the Mystic,” as I wondered where she could have gone. Did a hawk swoop down and take her away? Did a fox leap out from a hole and carry her off? I had only lost sight of her for a moment…

After walking the vineyard for about 10 minutes, I circled back to the coop, where I found her trying furiously to transport her body through the fencing to get back to her flock. I caught my sweet girl, returned her to the inside of the coop, and enjoyed and incredible adrenaline rush. Who needs coffee? I decided that this mischievous chicken needed a name. From this day forward, she shall be known as The Mystic.

9:00 – Uh oh. Back to work and feeling the weight of supplying my own energy. Must carry on. There is much work to do!

9:30 – Feeling okay. Throat hurts from screaming for my chicken’s life, but the strawberry water is soothing, more so than I believe coffee would be.

10:00 – Fine. I’ll try tea (lavender lemon) without sweeteners.

10:05 – Not bad. But I felt this tiredness, like when you’re not tired but you’re grieving, and so you feel the grief even when you’re not thinking about it. Like it’s running in the background even though you’re still functioning. Of course, there are a lot of things going on my life, as with anyone, so maybe all of it just sort began settling down on my shoulders. Maybe coffee helped me avoid it.

I made it to lunch – my finish line for the day! I don’t miss coffee, but I miss the idea of it. When making plans, I need to come up with something different than: “Want to meet for coffee?”

We’ll see what that becomes…

Until next time,
Cherie Dawn