When the world slows down enough for you to be fully present in the moment, incredible things happen. You get to become aware of the experience you’re having, see the ideas connected to it, feel the emotions associated with it and choose whether or not to change it. This particular blog and perspective was inspired by a cup of freshly brewed cacao.
Crio Bru is a company I have mentioned in past writings. I love the quality and the organic flavor options of cacao beans. On this particular morning I chose a very wide, bowl like coffee cup to steep my Crio Bru. I opted to steep it like loose leaf tea instead of running it thought the coffee pot. I dumped the used grounds on a plate to dry briefly wondering if there was something I could create with them later. I moved on to the couch with my cacao to sip it and enjoy the morning view of nature. I didn’t add any honey, cream or other flavor to my cacao that day. The first thing I noticed drinking it black was how distinct the flavor notes of the cacao beans were. Coffee, chocolate and berry notes were clearly noticeable and had a nice lingering quality to them.
Staring down into my cup I noticed there appeared to be layers to the brewed cacao. It looked slightly watery around the edges. There were also some fine grounds floating in the bottom of the cup that escaped the tea infuser I had used to steep my cacao. On top of that, I noticed a sheen floating on the very top layer of it all. What showed up in my mind next was just plain fun. I knew the sheen floating on top was the oil present in the ground cacao beans brought out by the hot water. I also knew that the floating grounds were pieces of the cacao beans that slipped through the steeper but were essentially small cacao nibs. My mind quickly connected these pieces of information it knew as fact from my experiences with cacao when the information was originally learned.
I have been on a few chocolate tours and done a couple of presentations on chocolate history when I could find an opportunity in school. The details from those experiences popped up as associated with cacao and agreeing on what I knew to be true about cacao, its growing, processing and the products created from it. I could have relived each and every memory but I didn’t want to float that far off in my thoughts and get away from my plans for the day. As the factual part of the memories popped up, the feeling I had about each experience was right there connected to it. Though pleasant, I chose not to get too far off into those memories either.
As I brought my awareness back out of those experiences, details of all the health related facts and benefits of cacao started showing up in my mind. I shifted past those thoughts and brought my awareness back to the hot cacao, sun and nature view I was enjoying that morning. What this whole experience from a cup of cacao shows you is thoughts and feelings are connected with everything. You can choose to get lost in them. You can choose to use them as motivation. You can even choose which, if any, to focus on. The point is you get to choose your current experience. Everything else is a past reference or history that isn’t required to have anything to do with your present choices unless you want it to.