The internet has been down at our house following a patch of stormy weather. In some ways, the outage has been a blessing, but being disconnected has also been inconvenient. Hence, this late post on “What’s Brewing” is brought to you from my favorite booth at Great Lakes Chocolate and Coffee (where the Pandora station is down but the Wi-Fi is free.)

The world is made up of interesting people, and lots of them show up at my coffee shop — on both sides of the counter.

My co-workers are mostly 20-something females. I have many opportunities to relate to young adults in a number of venues (my kids’ friends, for one), so I’m pretty comfortable around them. But I’ve had to remember to leave my “mom hat” at home when I work a shift at Great Lakes Chocolate and Coffee. We’re just co-workers and they aren’t here for parental advice.

However, watching them interact with one another and with the customers, I can’t help but begin to care about the issues they bring with them to their work shift.

There’s the stressed-out single Mom who works this and another job to make ends meet. And the college students who are juggling summer classes while working nearly full-time, wondering just where that expensive college degree will take them. And the girl who hasn’t yet figured out what she wants, but knows she needs a job to get there.

For the most part, they are professional and responsible, and they don’t let “life” infringe on work. They really expect and deserve to be treated like the self-sufficient, competent young women they are.

So I when I walk through the front door, I tuck the “mom hat” into my purse.

But that doesn’t shut down my “mom heart”.

As I prepare today to spend the next several hours working alongside one of these young ones, tumbling around in my head are words that I wish I had heard at their age, wisdom that jumped off the page to me as I spent some early morning moments on my front porch today — just me, God and the birds. And these inspired words:

“If we have found peace, it is only because we have found the end of self.” Steven James

From my vantage point — 60+ years down the road — these words hold a lot of truth. At 20-something, I doubt I would have listened or cared.

But if I shared them with my young co-workers, I would add this:

All that is crazy and seemingly out of control in your world today…

All that seems so important and life-changing…

Everything that appears to hold the key to your future happiness…

All those good and necessary things don’t stand up to the peace that comes from knowing “self” can’t possibly have all the answers. Even the most competent and wise among us will someday figure out that peace — contentment, satisfaction, success — only comes when we demand less of ourselves and pray more.

That’s what my “mom heart” would have them know.