Meditation for February 10th, 2016
Luxuries
We love to spoil ourselves. We take whole days for self-care. We go to spas to get massages and pedicures. We order fancy drinks that we don’t normally order once in awhile. Some of us have a night we go out to eat. Giving us a little treat is the bright spots in our day-to-day lives. Instead of coffee we get a mocha with whip 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 awhile becomes a mocha ordered every morning and it has whip every time. We forget to enjoy the small things and we become entitled. We feel anger when the barista forgets our normal order, we cry when the Whole Foods is out of those muffins, we lose our minds when the normal lady isn’t there to do our hair.
Start by not putting cream in your coffee. Farmers labored hard and with love to grow and pick those beans and the roaster spent labor and love to roast that bean to perfection. People have chosen this bean to be ground and 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 takes away from God’s greatest gift to man: coffee. Putting cream in your coffee is a luxury.
When we do these little things that we think we deserve like putting cream in our coffee, we move further away from the spiritual world and more and more 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 behinds 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, but 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 popcorn amount of coffee beans into the popper.
Put the yellow hood on and a bowl under 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 or just take the burns. Agitate until the beans are just warm.
Put the beans in a jar and store in a cool dark place. Do not freeze. Don’t seal the beans so that the CO2 can vent away.
Wait anywhere between 12 to 24 hours to use 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 everyday? Make a list. Quit those things.