The barista called out “Devony…” We looked around a little. No one else got up. I went to check the coffee. “And here’s the second one for Devony,” she smiled. Somehow Devony made much more sense to them than Dominique. But the coffee was delicious — a rose by any other name, I guess.

And we don’t fare a lot better when using my name. Jodi is always spelled incorrectly, if not made into Joni, or Josie, or Joey. But it doesn’t really bother me, as long as the coffee is good. 

It’s so easy to get hung up on the little details. And I’m not proud of it, but I can do it as well. Take the gym, for example. Each morning I go down to the hotel fitness center to use the tread mill. If you don’t pull the emergency stop button and put it back on, it doesn’t reset. Not a big deal, but then the time doesn’t reset and unless you checked the clock, you can’t measure your workout. I used to get very annoyed by this. One day I heard myself saying, “How hard is it to just reset the button when you’re done???” And then I heard it… “How hard is it???” Indeed. Now the first thing I do is reset it myself. It’s not hard at all. And then I don’t have to be upset. “Oh, Devony…” I say to myself and smile, “You’re learning. You deserve a coffee.”