☕ Morning Coffee ––– The Detour May Be the Better Road

Not every road we travel is one we planned to take. Sometimes the detour introduces us to people, places, and possibilities we would have otherwise missed. Grab your coffee—we’re taking the scenic route this morning.

August 15, 2026

Most of us begin the day with some idea of how we expect it to go.

men sitting beside a brick wall having coffee — ^{_{Photo by Daniel Nouri on Pexels.com}}

We know where we need to be, what needs to get done, and perhaps even what time we hope to have everything finished.

Then life puts up a detour sign.

Something changes.

A telephone call comes. Someone needs us. The car won’t start. The appointment runs late. A plan we were counting on falls apart. Suddenly, the road we expected to travel is closed, and we are headed somewhere we never intended to go.

I have traveled enough country roads in my life to know that detours can be frustrating.

But I have also discovered something else about them.

Sometimes the road you didn’t intend to travel shows you something you would never have seen otherwise.

You notice an old farmhouse sitting beneath a grove of trees. You cross a creek you didn’t know existed. You find a little town you have never visited. Maybe you meet someone you would never have met had everything gone according to plan.

Life works much the same way.

Some of the people who become important to us arrive because something else didn’t work out. Some of our greatest opportunities begin with disappointment. Some of the stories we eventually treasure started on days when we thought everything was going wrong.

That doesn’t mean every detour is pleasant.

Some are difficult. Some hurt. Some take us a long way from where we thought we would be.

But getting somewhere differently doesn’t always mean we are lost.

So, as you have your coffee this morning, perhaps there is something in your life that hasn’t gone according to plan.

You may be staring at a detour sign right now, wondering why the road ahead had to change.

Give it a little time.

Keep going.

Look out the window along the way.

There may be something waiting on this road that you could never have found on the one you originally planned to travel.

Sometimes the unexpected road becomes the one that takes us exactly where we needed to go.

Pour yourself another cup.

We’ve still got some traveling to do.

Until tomorrow, may your coffee stay warm, your memories stay close, and your hope stay strong. The coffee will be waiting again tomorrow, and I hope you’ll be here to share it with me.

— Benjamin Groff II
Morning Coffee at benandsteve.com