[] my social elixir []

Sooo many changes since the new year began and you heard from me last.  One of the more interesting things, I completely stopped drinking coffee and pop.  This may not sound interesting to you, but for me, a whole new perspective emerged.  To be honest, its really weird to be on "this side" of the coffee debate.  I drank for over 15 years the wonderfully, full bodied, deep, rich, smokey potion that my grandmother Susie introduced me to at a very young age.  This is where my social aspect of drinking coffee started.  Having the positive attention and time spent with the older people in my family was always a huge desire. Drinking coffee on the front porch with my grandma in mid-summer is one of my favorite memories.  She had a great front porch: a super green, always clean indoor/outdoor carpet, big overflowing planters of flowers and a perfect yellow porch swing.  I remember my sister grace and my favorite cousin erica fit on that swing with just enough wiggle room.  Each morning my grandma would brew a big batch of coffee so strong and hot, it tasted terrible to me as a kid but I was hooked already.  I would carefully follow her outside, spilling the molten lava all over the place, but quickly regaining composure if she were to turn around. The gold shag carpet hid the stains pretty well.  Making my way onto the porch, the perfect amount of shade, breeze, and company shared: I was hooked into the social aspect that coffee drinkers everywhere experience.
Let me me say that I never intended to give up on coffee.  How did it happen? I decided to do the Daniel Fast in January.  Brainstorming ways to start my new year off right, opposed to the typical new years resolution thing, the fast grew in my mind as something more than a promise to keep.  I did some research, but ended up just jumping in on a monday.  I'm no stranger to the whole vegan lifestyle, so the transition wasn't a huge shock, but there were many things different: the fast provides a 3 week period in your life to eat like someone in the Bible, Daniel.  He demonstrated that eating a diet rich in fruits, veggies, whole grains and water is very beneficial. So thats why I gave up coffee in the first place. The fast also provides during this 3 week period a time to really focus on God's heart for us.  I truly wanted this in a big way.  Just as if we start our day talking to God, thanking him for the certain people and things in our life, asking for straight-up wisdom and counsel, the day has a better focus.  If we then can start our year out with these things, wouldn't it make sense that our year has a better focus? I believe so.

Its been 2 full months without coffee.  I've gotten over the perception of it being my social elixir, I've gone through the detox process (don't roll your eyes, it was terrible) and I have emerged the same person only richer, more robust.  After all, I never wanted to be a different person, I wanted a personal experience that let me know I was on Gods radar, that He loved me and was looking into the details of my life. And He is. 

Friends, sit down, think deeply and follow the heart that He has given you...thanks for reading