Pouring Over

This Sunday morning, my cup poureth over (literally and figuratively). I recently turned 51 and that same week was Blake’s last round of chemotherapy. I was present for each round from June to October. I watched as the chemo took its toll on him physically and emotionally. I watched as the watching took its toll on my wife. 

But that was why I was there: the hands, eyes, and feet of the family. I was there to make sure we got to where we needed to go, to learn what we needed to learn, etc. I was there to support the family, so my wife could support my son. Taking on that burden of existing for months in a head-space, without processing my heart-space means my cup is going to pour over, but not necessarily in a good way.

At home, I alternate making coffee between our K-cups and a pour-over coffee brewer. Marce doesn’t have coffee every morning anymore as the acidity is hard on her stomach. This means making a pot of coffee becomes too much. The trick of a pour-over that I have yet to master is knowing how much water to put in.

You have to pour the water in slowly to let the grounds bloom and to prevent the water from overloading pour-over. You also should slowly pour it in in a circular fashion so the hot water steeps through the coffee on the walls of the metal filter. But as you’re doing that, it can distract you from watching how full your mug is.

I’ve overfilled my cup several times. Once, as I was taking it over to my trashcan to scrape out the grounds, near-boiling hot water flowed over my thumb and index finger. I felt that scalded skin for a few days. I do it anyway, because the pour-over makes a great cup of coffee.  You know you’re infusing the grounds with very hot water, rather than the slow seep of maybe just above luke-warm water of your standard coffee maker.