The North Point

For over two years Morning Prayer and the North Point
have been the keystones of my weekday morning routine.
I wrote about the former in a previous blog. The latter is a
small coffee shoppe in town where I do my journeying and
journaling du jour. Every weekday at 8:45 I go to Morning
Prayer at the University Chapel. By 9:05 I am usually down
the street sitting in at the North Point and cradling a hot choc-
olate or Fair Trade mocha in my hands. I have been attend-
ing the prayer time for over four years now, but only in the
last two years has my North Point time become a part of my
morning ritual.


Like the University Chapel, the North Point has become, to
a great extent, sacred space for me. In the morning I usu-
ally put in an hour or more of work at the office before tak-
ing a break that begins with prayer in the Chapel. My time
at the North Point has become the continuation of a daily
mini-Sabbath that begins with the earlier prayer time. Morn-
ing Prayer and drinking a mocha have become essential
morning activities of my weekday routine.

The North Point Coffee Shoppe is a small place crammed
with six two-seat tables, two three-seaters, three stools by
the window, and six tables that seat four people. The Hap-
py Hour was what first drew me to the North Point and
what continues to attract me there now. For the price of
one British pound (about $2US) I have a place where I can
sit, write, talk, and enjoy a good hot drink until I leave at
9:45 or so. Not many people are there at 9am when I usu-
ally take a place at one of the two-seat tables. There is a
quietness then that comforts me and soothing music that
makes me feel at home. By the time I leave, there is a con-
stant stream of people coming and going. I'm always as-
tounded at the thunderous sound of three dozen or so peo-
ple talking at the same time, all compressed into such a
small place.

A place and a time to journal my life journey while sipping
on a Happy Hour hot chocolate are what I like best about
my North Point routine. By journaling I chronicle and reflect
on people I meet, conversations I have, movies I see, things
I do, books I read, thoughts that emerge in my mind, and
insights that occur to me. It is a personal way that I signal
to God that I am paying attention to what He is doing and
whom He brings into my life. It helps me to take God seri-
ously in everything I do. And there are times I enjoy rich
conversations with friends, colleagues, and people I just hap-
pen to meet in the North Point. At other times I tune out
everything around me and read from a good book. There
have been occasions when all I have done is just sit there
doing nothing. The North Point has become a refuge for me.

Whereas some form of morning prayer is a discipline that
I will exercize for the rest of my life, my North Point rou-
tine is not. For the past two years in St. Andrews it has been
a wonderful ritual and an important part of my life. But it is
temporary. Soon the time will come when I will leave St.
Andrews. I will no longer enter the North Point; the Hap-
py Hours will become deeply cherished memories. But un-
til that time comes, I will continue to enjoy the journeying
and journaling du jour at the North Point.

Blessings to you and yours