Yesterday, John & I dropped by Be Well Bakery & Café, our second visit of the day. In the morning, the joint was jumping, with the usual Sunday morning crowd looking for our Garden Bagel with slices of avocado, homemade granola parfait, maybe a breakfast dessert of zucchini cake, fueled with a coffee beverage, maybe the Lady Violet or Go Green smoothie. In the late afternoon, there was an unexpected hush over the beautiful deep maroon room - we were the only customers, as the staff quietly & efficiently stripped out the beloved space's accoutrements, transferring them to the NEW space, a short hop over the next-door dry cleaners. There was Tony, counting out the drawer, the wonderful young guys helping us with our order - one last time to order the Super Salad (with gouda), two brownie sandwiches (raspberry filling for me, salted caramel for John) & what turned out to be a very generous slice of Gwyneth's wondrous Coconut Cream Cake.
We gathered up our order, took a final look around, went out the door. For the last time.
What was it to me? The space - first as Santiago's, when Alex was still there, then later as Be Well - was where I came into my own. In my 50s & 60s. It was where I could connect with others, something I'd longed to do all my life but had felt like I fumbled. In that space, it was easy natural magical. No effort, just flow.
It was where I connected with Rebecca & through her with Delaware Valley High School, got a job subbing then as a full-time science (seriously?) teacher, which I loved, then taught one year of social studies, the field in which I am actually credentialed. Whichever the subject, I had the blessing of teaching as creatively as I pleased, had the joy of knowing that some days, on my best days & theirs, I actually got through to some of the tough-as-nails kids who seemed to pride themselves on being beyond our reach, beyond repair. For three summers, I got to teach summer school English & Science to classes that were 1/4 remedial, with the others there from other schools to log in extra credits so they could move AHEAD of their classmates when the new school year started. We did enrichment work, reviewing the lives of great scientists, opening their eyes to the contributions of great minds in the ancient Middle East, Asia, India. We did a unit on satire, beginning with Thomas Swift's A Modest Proposal - which I did NOT first explain was a spoof), moving onto Franklin's Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One, to Twain's Man's The Only Animal Who Blushes ... Or Needs To, then ending with watching Stephen Colbert's 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner, which he'd given earlier that year. My last year, teaching social studies, was pure joy & provided miraculous closure for being booted from teaching at Bryn Athyn Elementary School many years before, a heart tear I never expected to truly heal. I got to that wondrous point in my life because of Alex' café being a welcoming sanctuary after Mom died.
It was my office, a place I could camp out for hours, reading & writing. In the impossible days after 9/16/01 when - within three weeks - I lost my best gad-about buddy, my surviving parent, my confidante & always-there right hand PLUS the rest of my birth family, my job, even my sense of national security, Santiago's was there to keep me grounded.
And then, 4 1/2 years ago, Be Well Bakery & Café opened, the dream of two audacious dreamers & a partner who believed in them. Look at it now, moving into a space double the original. Did I see this coming when they opened? As if it had already happened. In those early days, getting addicted to Maddie's Cheese Rolls, being pampered by the staff, marveling at Adriann & Ryan's seemingly endless energy flow, I'd look at the partially filled display case & think to myself, "Some day, every space in here will be maxed out." I'd look around the room & think, "Some day, the line will be 10-deep waiting to place orders."
It happened, just as I'd foreseen. And so much more. It was where I - to my shock - mounted a summer-long photography show of shots of kids with cupcakes & other shots from Bryn Athyn Bounty Farm Market, which started at much the same time. It's where John & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by presenting a joint art show. It's where I became friends with first Brett, then Heather & the girls, which progressed to fire pits where we became friends with a former student who introduced me to The Greatest Salesman in the World, which is changing my life in ways I know will be awesome, just as I knew the success that would come to Be Well. It's not a matter of making it happen, but of letting what already is make itself seen.
The space that housed Santiago's & Be Well - that is sacred space to me. Hallowed things happened there that I could never have envisioned. I became a more fully realized version of who I'd been, thanks to the safety & support, the nurturing friendships & the loving relationships that were forged & flourished.
May there be a forever blessing on that sacred space, hallowed by all who sat sipped supped there, who waited outside for the door to open before taking his place by the window, who gathered there to gab away a good part of the morning, who worked quietly on computers or read the morning's newspaper, who greeted friends & pleasant acquaintances as they walked to the counter, who felt at home & pampered, well served & well fed.
Surely, the Lord was in that place. And it is forever in my heart.
Now - onward & upward!
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