San Diego Joe

Rebecca’s Coffee House, South Park. See full album via San Diego Joe’s Facebook Page (click).

Dear Rebecca,

I know we’ve never formally met, but I feel like we’re kindred spirits. Maybe even co-conspirators or dear friends from a past life, if you believe in such things…

I first happened into your coffee house hungry, home sick and weary. Hungry for more than your delicious scones. I had the Blackberry with strawberry jam, and yes, it was delicious. But the core of my hunger was for more than sweet pastry, and I hesitate to say, it was for more than a great cup of joe…

Although, I found the iced Vietnamese Coffee I chose absolutely devine, I was hungry for a place in which to worship existence alongside others meditating on their day’s work, or writing, like me, in leather-bound notebooks feeling the murmur of voices Creciendo, then Decreciendo… A place that invites you to come in, sit a while, breath and just be… A Sanctuary to help me reflect on what’s really important when life does its best to steer me away…

In 2006, when I moved from Seattle to Los Angeles and later to San Diego, I had no idea how much I would miss the Northwest Coffee House Culture. In the years following college at Western Washington University in Bellingham, I religiously attended Open Mic nights at Stuart’s Coffee. A wall flower, happy to sit wherever there was room, I had been writing since thirteen, and it was there that I first found my voice, stood and through trembling fingers managed to read.

Every Monday I would go. And discover a new Bob Dylan that no corporate radio station would play, poems that would have Neruda taking notes on imagery, and Thoreau singing praises in his grave. I don’t know about you, but when I hear something really good, I get goose bumps, the frontal lobe of my brain feels light and tingly, and my core brims with emotion. The only way I can describe it is how I felt experiencing beautiful music in a Church as a child. It was like Church. It was my Church.

I would say my journey has come to an end and I am no longer weary, but life makes us all weary, and we need a place to come where we can be unburdened and filled. Renewed in purpose—mind, body and soul. In this way, my journey is just a beginning of something I’ve hungered for and sorely missed… While, I do hope to find more Sanctuaries, like yours in San Diego, just between you and me, I’m not sure any will be quite the same…

Warm Regards,

San Diego Joe