Let’s Have Coffee

If we were having coffee on this rainy Sunday afternoon, we could curl up on the couch in my tiny 400 square-foot apartment. I don’t have people over very often, as I lack sufficient space for entertaining, but my coffee is most enjoyed at home.

I’d serve your coffee in my second favourite mug, otherwise known as the “love mug”. This mug is adorned with quotes of love by the world’s greatest writers:

Love comforteth like sunshine after rain. – Shakespeare.

That love is all there is, is all we know of love. – Emily Dickinson.

Love conquers All. – Virgil.

I always have my coffee in my Spice Girls mug, a mug I’ve held close to my heart for almost 10 years.

Why Spice Girls, you may ask? Why a love mug? Let me explain.

As a young girl I loved the Spice Girls. Everything I had was Spice Girls. I had everything from the pencil case with a matching plastic backpack, the Spice Girl barbie doll collection, I even opted for the 5¢ Spice Girl gum that came with either a sticker or, even better, a temporary tattoo. When my friends and I would play “Spice Girls”, I was always Sporty Spice. They were a huge part of my childhood.

When the Girls reunited for their reunion tour I was around 15 years old, and I couldn’t afford a ticket to go. I was pretty devastated at the time, my feelings of nostalgia resurfacing. My great friend Lauren was lucky enough to attend the concert, and when she came to school the next day, she surprised me with the Spice Girls mug. Ten years later, I use this mug religiously. Although Lauren and I are separated by thousands of kilometres now, I remind her via pictures how much I still use this mug. I’m so protective of it, I don’t let anyone else use it. Maybe I’m a little crazy, but it’s one of the most thoughtful and most used gifts I’ve ever been given.

As for the love mug you’re currently sipping your coffee out of, its origin story is one of “one man’s junk is another (wo)man’s treasure.”

The summer before university I had been volunteering at an animal rescue shelter that doubled as a second hand shop in the small town of Lakefield, ON. The proceeds from the sales were used to provide food and care for the cats they rescued. One day as I was sorting through boxes of donated items, I came across the love mug. As a lover of literature and the power of love, I just had to have it. What made it even more special was that it had a previous life before it came into my hands. Someone once enjoyed their coffee from this very mug, and rather than toss it out when it lost its novelty, they donated it to a special cause. When it came into my possession it lacked perfection, the hint of old coffee stains left behind, scratches through the hearts surrounding its base. I embrace its imperfections, and I’m glad it’s one of the few possessions of mine that made it across the country with me.

Do you have a sacred mug? What’s its origin story? I’d love to know. Happy Sunday fellow bloggers. 🙂

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Inspired by #weekendcoffeeshare. What would you say if we were having coffee?

Featured image by my talented partner, Thrippie.