This is where I eat breakfast most mornings. I read in the bible a bit. Write in my journal. Write poetry. It’s called the Pine Grove Diner, but I refer to it as “the last diner standing”.

I call it that because when I first moved here fifteen years ago, there were a slew of diners to choose from. I spent most of my mornings at one called Pawlet Station, which readers may remember as “my favorite diner.” There was another whose name I forget in nearby Poultney that I called the “relentlessly cheerful diner” for it’s bright colors on the walls. But all of the diners have closed, one by one, except the Pine Grove. Thus the nickname.

I have no idea why I give them all nicknames. Pawlet Station was “My favorite diner” even when I was eating only there. I ate there for a lot of years. At current count I have been through six owners. It’s closed now but there are rumors it is going to start up again this spring.

I began eating breakfast out when I was in the midst of my divorce, 20 years ago. At the time I was in a black hole of depression. Dark. Darker than you can know. (Except you, David, you know.) It was not good for me to be alone, so I began having breakfast and working in the mornings at a place called Mill Mountain Coffee. There I was not alone exactly. And I found joy in the quiet anonymity of a bustling place. I still do.

Show up every day for a while and you start to get to know people. I’ve made friends at my diners. I have a couple of parishioners who knew me first at one of my diners or another. One of my pastor friends calls the diner my church’s “annex”.

But mostly it is a place where I can live in that noisy anonymity. I am comfortable in that place. My life is a life of responsibility and constant decisions. The diner is just the opposite. No timetables. No need to accomplish anything. I get to look inward and yet, not be alone.

I am an introvert. I am very comfortable as an introvert. When Susan Cain wrote “Quiet” her wonderful book on introverts, I found myself nodding throughout the book. “Yep, that’s me. And that’s me. And that’s me too.”

But alone all the time is not a healthy place for anyone. even introverts. Most of the time when I am in groups, I am active, engaged, social. It is hard for those who see me then to imagine me as an introvert, because I am pretty good at the being social thing. But it sucks the everlasting energy right out of me.

That is why time here, where I can disappear into the knotty pine paneling, is good. I am with people. But mostly I am alone. I do good work, the stuff I like to do. Yes, now and again I find myself taking, often intensely with people. but mostly I am the guy in the corner, quietly tapping on his computer, in his own little world.

It’s a good place to be.

I am grateful that my wife understands, or at least cheerfully tolerates my diner habit. Not everyone would want their husband heading out in the morning instead of hanging around the house, but she gets it and that it’s good for me. I am grateful for that about her.

I am also grateful that as diners rise and fall around here, I have always been able to find another place to be. I miss some of the diners that I used to go to. I miss them a lot. The food and the coffee here is ordinary, but they are the nicest people. They know what I like and they are kind and generous. The music is OK and they have internet. All I need.

I often say that all I need in my art studio is time, space and light. The truth is that in my life, those three things are all I need as well. Time. Space. Light. And I get those at the diners. Start my day with them.

Never underestimate the importance of how we start our days. What we do. What we say to ourselves. People who advocate journaling (and I am one) know that journaling is most effective done first thing in the morning. The tone we take sets up the rest of our day. And I am blessed to be able to start my days in a way that is good for me.

And that is probably the reason I am writing this. To simply express my gratitude for the time, for being able to financially and in my schedule, have these mornings. To have the time, space and light that carries me through the rest of my day.

I am blessed indeed.

Be well. Travel wisely,

Tom

PS: Yes, the picture is of the diner. Taken just before I started writing this.