Documenting a small, specific choreography that has become entirely essential
I have a genuinely specific, slightly ridiculous ritual involving the first proper coffee of any river walk, and I think it deserves proper documentation, if only because rituals this specific rarely get the recognition they deserve.
The exact coffee that has to happen
It has to be from one specific spot, purchased at one specific point in the walk, roughly halfway, and consumed while standing rather than sitting, facing the water rather than the street, a whole small choreography that has developed over enough repetitions to feel non-negotiable at this point.
I could not tell you exactly when or how this ritual solidified into its current precise form. I only know that deviating from it, even slightly, produces a walk that feels subtly, noticeably incomplete in a way I cannot fully explain to anyone who has not developed a similarly specific ritual of their own.
The barista who has become part of it
The person working the counter at this specific spot has, over time, become a genuine part of the ritual itself, a small daily exchange that has evolved its own particular rhythm, and on the rare mornings someone else is working instead, the whole walk feels subtly off in a way that surprises me every time.
I do not know this person’s name, and I have never asked, on the theory that keeping the relationship at exactly this level of familiar anonymity is somehow part of what makes it work as well as it does.
What happens when the ritual breaks
On the rare mornings the spot is closed, or I am running too late to stop, the resulting walk is measurably different, faster, somehow less complete, missing whatever specific quality the ritual usually provides.
I have tried substituting other coffee, from other places, at other points in the walk, and none of it quite works the same way, which has led me to accept that this is simply not really about the coffee itself but about the specific, accumulated ritual surrounding it.
Why documenting this feels important
I am aware that writing an entire piece about a coffee ritual is, on some level, faintly absurd. But I think these small, specific, slightly irrational rituals are actually where a lot of the real texture of a life lives, and I would rather document mine properly than let it pass entirely unremarked.
More ritual documentation at Harper Thames, Bohiney.
The other rituals I have quietly abandoned
This coffee ritual has survived where numerous other attempted routines have quietly failed over the years, morning stretches, specific breakfast combinations, various other small structures I tried to impose on my days and eventually let go of without much ceremony.
I think the difference is that this one attached itself to something I was already doing anyway, the walk itself, rather than existing as a standalone habit I had to actively remember and maintain from scratch each day.
What my friends make of it
Friends who have joined me on this walk find the whole ritual genuinely amusing, watching me insist on the specific spot, the specific standing position, the specific direction faced, and I have stopped trying to justify it and simply let them enjoy the spectacle of my own mild absurdity.
A small closing note
The ritual continues tomorrow, exactly as specific as ever, and I would not have it any other way at this point.
The morning I tried a different order entirely
I once, in a moment of minor rebellion against my own routine, ordered something completely different from the usual, and the resulting sense of walking through unfamiliar territory in my own established ritual was disorienting enough that I have not repeated the experiment since.
It is a small, low stakes example of how thoroughly a routine can embed itself, to the point where even minor deliberate variation feels genuinely unsettling rather than simply mildly different.
If you have your own precise, slightly irrational ritual, genuinely, tell me about it.
One more small thing
I have started to wonder what this ritual will look like in another decade, and whether it will still hold together in exactly this shape.
More soon, presumably, on this same stretch of river.
What I would tell someone else about the weather
Give it one genuinely open minded walk before deciding you hate it. I suspect more people would come around to appreciating it than currently admit to doing so.
More soon.
Thanks, as ever, for reading this far.
Truly, a final word
Tomorrow’s walk starts the same way it always does, and I have no intention of changing that any time soon.
More soon.
The very last thing
Some rituals do not need justifying beyond simply working, reliably, every single time you show up for them.
End.
Thank you, genuinely, for reading this far.
See you out there.
Until the next walk.
End of this entry.
Thanks for sticking with this one.
End.
Genuinely, thanks for reading.
End of this entry, genuinely.
Thanks, genuinely, once more.
The walk continues tomorrow, coffee in hand, exactly as planned.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/
