Meditation for February 11th
Luxuries
We love to spoil ourselves. We take days off for self-care. We go to spas to get massages and pedicures. We order fancy drinks we don’t normally order once in a while. Some of us go out to eat when we want. Giving us a little treat is one of the bright spots in our day-to-day lives. Instead of coffee, we get a mocha with whipped cream on a day we aren’t feeling as happy. These are the little luxuries of normal people.
These luxuries are ruining your life. They don’t become little treats; they become expectations. What started as a mocha once in a while becomes a mocha ordered every morning, with whip every time. We forget to enjoy the small things, and we become entitled. We feel anger when the barista forgets our usual order; we cry when Whole Foods is out of those muffins; we lose our minds when the usual lady isn’t there to do our hair. We forget these are luxuries and come to believe they are as important as food and shelter. We start believing we should get parking spots close to the front door.
Start by leaving out the cream in your coffee. Farmers labored hard and with love to grow and harvest those beans, and the roaster spent labor and love to roast them to perfection. People have chosen this bean to be ground and to have hot water pass through it, to be tasted, savored, and enjoyed. Don’t ruin it with some cheap fatty cow milk. Not only is having half-and-half available a scourge on the environment, but it also takes away from God’s greatest gift to man: coffee. Putting cream in your coffee is a luxury.
When we do the little things we think we deserve, like adding cream to our coffee, we move farther from the spiritual world and deeper into the material world. We lose touch with love, God, and compassion when we stand there swirling our cream and sugar around and maybe dashing some cinnamon and nutmeg in, while the person behind you just needs a lid for their black coffee but has to wait fucking five minutes for you to act like a billionaire before getting back to your miserably mediocre life. You are damming the stream of life.
Other luxuries that are burdening your spiritual health is having someone else spread cream cheese or butter on your bagel, asking questions about ingredients while there is a line behind you, drinking from a can or bottle with a straw, getting a drink that costs money for free when you get a haircut, waiting in line at a restaurant, watching or playing 18 holes of golf…the list actually goes on and on. Still, I’m sure you are starting to get the picture.
Drink your coffee black.
Prayer
Lord of the Flies,
allow me to forgo the little treats in my day,
to become a warrior of my faith.
Give me the strength to enjoy things as they are,
instead of seeing what riches I can add to it.
Let me love things as they are intended.
God of Retail and Public Belittlings,
please give me the power to spoil people.
When they need something, they need to have it.
Not having a cap full of cream could start World War 3.
Not having the right schmear for a bagel could get a child punched.
Not having seven napkins for a burrito could create a divorce.
I need to remember that people are as fragile as a Chinese lantern in a hurricane,
and they think they deserve more than they do.
Amen.
Craft
Buy some green coffee beans – meaning not roasted yet.
Buy a popcorn popper machine – you know, the one with the yellow hood.
Put the recommended amount of coffee beans into the popper.
Put on the yellow hood and place a bowl beneath where the beans will come out.
Wait for the smell and the crack sound – about 3 minutes
Keep an eye on the beans till you have the desired roast.
5 minutes for light roast, 5.5 minutes for medium roast, and 6 minutes for dark roast, but these are just estimates.
Agitate the beans by pouring between two colanders. Watch the heat, wear mittens,s or take the burns. Agitate until the beans are just warm.
Put the beans in a jar and store them in a cool, dark place. Do not freeze. Don’t seal the beans so that the CO2 can vent away.
Wait 12 to 24 hours before using the beans. This is the perfect window to enjoy the delicious coffee you just roasted yourself.
DO NOT USE CREAM IN THIS COFFEE!
Goal
Simplify your life. Stop needing luxuries. As you go through your day, see where you treat yourself unnecessarily. Do you add things to something already delicious? Are you making someone else perform a simple task for you when you could do it just as easily? Do you spend a lot of time doctoring something up with free stuff just because it’s free? Do you have to have something every day? Make a list. Quit those things.