What flavour are you? When others have spent time with you, what taste do you leave them with? Not when you’re trying to impress, just when you’re simply being you. This last week, a woman has left us not quite sure how to describe the taste, but good grief – it tastes good. We’d like some more.
Each person is of course a unique mix of very similar things. We all offer our very own blend of character, personality, life-experiences, behaviours, preferences, values, opinions and priorities. Of course, how we mix them is up to us. So what’s it like for others when they’re with us?
It’s been a busy week. We at Genergy are currently developing the global management team of an exceptional business. They’ve gone from start-up to becoming a Times Top 100 company to work for in only 10 years. Their fantastic, devoted people would make any company more than proud. Helping ignite them further is creating an exciting buzz.
To revel in it all on saturday, my wife, daughter and I thought we’d go down to Brighton and get some ‘us time’. We had these plans, you see. We’d go shopping, walk around the streets, buy lots of things. There were so many things we needed, and Saturday would be a good time to pick them up. All of them. It’d be a busy day, but we could just about squeeze everything in. And our daughter Ella was ready for something new. She’s only 4 months old, so every new sight and smell is one exciting moment after another. So the train journey down was something else.
The sun was shining and the day was beautiful. But what was missing was a coffee. A good one. So once in Brighton, we looked for something different. And when we opened the door, we quickly knew we’d found it.
“Bonjour!!” Coffee shops can be a bit ten-a-penny these days, but this was different. It was a proper French one – with beautiful coloured macaroons and the kinds of cakes you don’t get in Britain very often. The pastries sat in the window smiling and flirting with all that walked by. And as we were shown to our seats (remember that in a coffee shop?), it was like being back in Austria and Switzerland where I used to work. And as we sat and looked around, it was perfect. It’s often said that people’s body language adapts to the environment you’re in, and around us, people young and old sat still. Everyone was calm and tranquil. Happy. Relaxed. The calmest of smiles.
And while sat waiting for our coffee, we smiled too. Relaxed.
Then she appeared.
“ ’Ello!” Welcome to ziss café. I am ze owneurrr!”. The loveliest elegant smile walked over to us. The French lady bearing it was in her early fifties and it was one of those smiles the bearer doesn’t know they have. It was beyond ear-to-ear. And as she arrived with our coffees, we started smiling a deeper smile too. And she spoke to us in a way you don’t witness any more. She spoke with the truth of her passion for good coffee and exquisite home-baked cakes. She wasn't showing off or marketing anything, she was just really excited about coffee and cakes. We weren’t customers, we were people she was excited to share her passion with. And as she stopped with us talking about anything she wanted, we couldn’t stop smiling. And Ella – our daughter? She couldn’t stop smiling and laughing. Our daughter couldn’t get enough of this lady, and when I asked the lady to speak to ella in French, ella couldn’t believe it. She smiled, laughed and wriggled with ecstasy. And as we all had fun together simply by talking about coffee and cake, I realised the day had changed.
This lady didn’t want to leave us, and we didn’t want to leave her. But she kissed Ella on the head quickly ten times, then she was gone to bake more cakes. Ella was in heaven. My wife was happy and beautiful. Coffee is one of my passions, and this coffee was quite simply the best coffee I’ve had in any country. I’m not a fan of superlatives, but this coffee really was the best I’ve ever tasted. Our day had changed. Something else did too.
We left the café in the sweetest silence. We didn’t buy anything that day. And we didn’t rush round the shops either. Ella didn’t stop smiling all day, and neither did we. Nothing mattered in the same way anymore. We were still blissfully tasting what we’d just been served.
We’re all agreed that cakes are good. And a truly good coffee can have a day-changing power of its own. But the truest, most sumptuous delicacies in life are what we create with those around us. These dishes we create together are at their most sublime when we observe a simple rule… let’s enjoy each other, no matter how different we all are. Coffee and cakes can be expensive, but our special moments of life together like the one the French lady gave us on Saturday are just priceless.
So this week, enjoy someone around you – a friend or perhaps someone you work with – in a new way. Enjoy tasting them as if for the first time.
Bon appetit!
:-) Jonathan


