I don’t have an office. I’m a writer without a desk. This is not by choice. It just has to do with the way things work out in my house. It’s a bustling place, brimming with energy, and the full and robust stuff of life.  That’s not what writers need. Well, I don’t know. That could be argued. Maybe it is what we need against our wills. Otherwise, we’d become sad and lonely hermits.

Nevertheless, I don’t have quiet, dedicated place to work. It has been this way for a little over a year. (This is why I write a lot about offices. I miss having one).

So I search the land pillaging and plundering for quiet work spaces. I frequent coffee shops and libraries, and various other places of the sort, moving like a nomad when the corporate welcome of a place wears out.

I joined the Starbucks loyalty program, where it took me two days to move to Green status, giving me unlimited free coffee refills during every visit. Unlimited, you say?! Hahaha! Don’t offer what you aren’t prepared to to give, Starbucks!

I test this regularly. So far, it’s exactly what it says. This saves me a LOT of money. If you are going to sit in a coffee shop for six hours on end, you need to keep a drink going. So, getting to those unlimited refills was practically the highlight of my summer. Finally, I don’t have to pay $3-$5 an hour to work. I can just pay $3 per day, and just keep the coffee flowing. I have actually come to find, though that the  coffee refills were only fifty cents anyway. But, I didn’t know that until later.

Not having an office is one of my biggest problems in life. If I had one, I could spend more time working, and grow my business, and thus make more money. But, I don’t, and so I just learn to maximize the power of my “mobile” office. That is—a hardy canvas messenger bag, where I cart my computer, and store other various supplies, like extra phone chargers, business cards, flash drives, pens, notebooks and headphones. At least I have all those.

But, my lack of good workspace sometimes is very frustrating. I have gotten to where I pray every day for an office. Right now, I am out of town. If I were looking for a quieter place to write, this would not be it. I’m staying with some give or take 15 people on a bustling church property.

But I found a quiet space in an office copier room with a desk, office supplies and a wifi connection. This space is free for me to use, pretty much all the time, and no one disturbs me. I have been using it quite a lot lately. And today, as I set my computer up, and prayed for an office of my own, I realized that this was enough for today.

Today I have an office. Today I am undisturbed. Today I can use this freely. And so I can for the next couple of weeks. So, why stress about it? I have what I need today. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. I guess this is what it means, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

I have been learning this a lot lately, about daily bread. I am a planner. A futurist. I have so many plans and goals, I get overwhelmed and can’t get to most of them. But, lately I have been learning to take what’s in front of me and tackle it with everything I’ve got. When you can do that, I have found, you put things into place that will set you up for where you are going. Now, there’s definitely a time and place for planning. But, sometimes, it’s important to live for today. And trust God for the future.

And so, as I am sitting in this corner of the copy room, my headphones blaring swelling, rousing Celtic music into my brain, and I bang away at my keyboard. I am right where I need to be. I have everything I need…today.