A Good Day to Carry On

Good Day Breakfast Cafe, Chiang Mai, Thailand

11:15 AM

It’s a Good Day to Carry On

I have to take the leap sometime. Why not today?

I was really planning for an exciting and grand relaunch of CoffeeHouseBlog.com. Instead, it’s going to start with just this little peep.

Or I’m afraid it might never happen.

Reality.

“It only took one word – “Covid”.

But my visit to Good Day Café in Chiang Mai brought home to me the dire necessity of promoting local businesses no matter where you are.

I asked the owner about his location being different from that on his Facebook page. It only took one word from him to tell me everything I needed to know  – “Covid”. 

The photos presented on the café’s page gave the picture of a light and airy, customer-filled, and thriving coffee, breakfast, and lunch cafe. 

No more.

But the owner presses on in a new, more modest location only, we hope, until this hysteria of Covid passes and/or healthy people choose to go back to living life on their terms.

That’s as political as I’ll allow myself to get on this platform, as there are plenty of things in life to talk about, discuss, disagree on, and learn without politicizing personal tragedies.

Still, the fact remains that everywhere in the world, local economies have been devastated.

In an effort to become just a little more familiar with the plight of exemplary and outstanding business owners who have either had to scale way back in their service or have been forced to shut down completely, I thought I should ask the owner’s name.

“Kim.”

Now, that wasn’t so hard. To ask Khun Kim his name at once personalized his business and plight to me, and also safely brought me just one step closer to the calamity of Covid for those whose livelihoods are different from mine.

Asking Khun Kim (Khun refers to Mr. or Ms. in Thai – a form of respect when addressing someone) about his place brought a noticeable shift in his soft, smiling demeanor. A sadness, if I may speculate. I don’t intend to slight Khun Kim by revealing this, only to convey that there have been severe consequences for him and his family.

Without the slightest hint of bragging, Kim says a few words about his old location. The people he employed. The customers he fed and served. The four-star rating he had.

As any restauranteur will attest – my wife included – it takes consistent and perseverant sweat and tears – often blood – to achieve any kind of lasting good reputation. They also live and die by the swift swords of Yelp!, Facebook, and Google Reviews.

What must it feel like when that’s taken away from you? How resilient must you be to be able to continue on after being humbled – even humiliated – like those whose business has been decimated in a matter of months, after years of hard-won prosperity? Or a recent and looming mortgage?

When I ride around this city, it’s impossible not to see that this tragedy has played out over and over and over. Shuttered businesses. Restaurants in a city and nation of restaurants closed down, empty, and dark. Or at best, “under renovation”.

We all are witnessing this. It’s evident in city after city, town after town. It is staggering in its implications. It’s world-changing in scale. 

And it has been virtually lethal in its personal toll.

“Leave your house with pockets lined of silver”

I don’t know that I can affect change in any significant way by either patronizing places like Kim’s Good Day Café, or by writing about them on this platform. But maybe you will find some place in your own heart for those you already know who have been affected. And maybe you will visit another establishment you were thinking of trying out but seemed “iffy” because there were no patrons. 

And if we meet someone who could not maintain their business and employees and inventory and were faced with the impossible choice of either limping along as far as they could or cutting their losses to take care of their immediate families, maybe we could find some small way to bless them.

Silver linings are created by the choices we make as human beings, created (but not necessarily maintained) in the image of God. 

Leave your house with pockets lined of silver for when you encounter others whose clouds are dark and foreboding. 

Both prayers and action go to those who did not survive this societal madness intact. The same and also loud cheers to the business owners and employees alike who have held on by the thinnest of threads.

To those of you who are and have already championed this cause,  I thank you for sacrificing, giving, and serving in my own and others’ stead!

So, today, I decided to come to a place like the Good Day Cafe. And I met Kim and his beautiful family. And they were very kind to me.

So, it is, indeed, a Good Day in the face of these trials. May every day be like today – and better – for you and your loved ones as it has been for me.

Note: In full disclosure, Khun Kim gifted me with a warm banana and coconut milk dessert! As I was almost finished with this post, his kindness has not affected this article in the least. Now, what it did for my heart is another matter and if you need to, please take it up with the editor.

UPDATE!

Just went to Kim’s Facebook page for Good Day Breakfast Cafe and there was this:

PLEASE click on the link above and LIKE his page and say hello to support Kim and his family! THANK YOU!

 

About this CoffeeHouse:

Good Day Breakfast Cafe Chiang Mai

A cozy little breakfast and coffee shop find. Honey Whole Grains (tasty cereal) with Two Eggs. Different, but great. Mocha iced coffee was just right! Inexpensive, nice music, and a very friendly owner and his family. Park on the street in the shade in the morning. AC inside, nice plant-inspired breeze outside.

Because of the Covid Panicdemic, Khun Kim had to downscale and move from his former thriving business location to this new one. Please help support him and those he is in league with.

Visit Khun Kim here:

Good Day Breakfast Café, Chiang Mai, Thailand 095 451 1153