[Blog (Non-channeled) March 2010]

The other day a client asked Polaris in session about coffee. She wanted to know whether coffee was good for her since she had heard conflicting reports from various spiritually-oriented sources. In the split second between the client's question and Polaris' answer, I had time to wonder myself. After all, I've been off coffee for two months. In part, it was because I had run out of the "good stuff" (organic, free trade, shade-grown, light roast — none of that burnt stuff for me!). And in part it was because I had heard messages for myself at the beginning of the year to lay off coffee for awhile. And while kicking coffee could almost be a blog post in itself, it wasn't a big deal.

In that split second I figured there'd be judgment about coffee. Maybe to support my own decision to lay off for a while.

But the split second only lasted a, well, split second.

Surpisingly, Polaris said coffee can be useful. One or maybe two cups a day, they said, but get this:

Think of your coffee as a sacred spiritual beverage that connects you to its aboriginal origins.

Ooo. I hadn't thought of that. Sacred spiritual beverage? Aboriginal origins? I'm liking that idea. Suddenly I have visuals of groups of people around a central fire. They have warm skin tones and are passing a vessel around the circle, each taking a drink. The drink and the fire warms them, and the drinking together connects them. It is good.

Having procured some more of the "good stuff" (I get mine from Origins Coffee Roasters in Vancouver, but Camano Island Roasters in Washington is good, too), this morning I decided to drink a cup while connecting to the sacred spiritual aspects of it.

I thought about drinking the coffee pure, that is, black. After all, the aboriginal origins of coffee likely didn't involve lattes. But bleh. I wanted to enjoy the experience. I don't use sugar, but I do bow to the gods of dairy, at least as much as I need to for a tablespoon of organic half-and-half.

Mindful eating can be a wonderful experience. Polaris suggests it often. It involves threading your way back to your food's origins and all the hands it has passed through to get to you, including yours. You also regard the soil that the food grew in, and the sun that warmed it and the rains that fed it. You meditate on that for a while and then when you finally eat, you really explore the explosion of sensory experience that eating is: smell, taste, texture, emotional connections.

Drinking coffee mindfully is much the same. Think of your coffee as a sacred spiritual beverage that connects you to its aboriginal origins.

I held my cup and looked at it, admiring the color of cafe au lait. I brought my face closer and took a big inhaling breath. Instantly I saw the fire again, the people gathered around it, chanting. I saw people picking the ripe coffee beans, singing. There's a song for the ripening, and a song for the harvesting. There's another song for the preparation of the beans, the shelling, roasting, and grinding. I took another deep breath of the aroma wafting from my cup and remembered my own past as a warm-skinned, barefooted person, climbing rocky hillsides, grateful for the warmth of the fire at night when the air is chill.

I sipped the coffee and felt memories course through my body. I feel them still. I am remembering. My past, our shared sacred past, is in my veins now. A part of me forever.

Are you a coffee drinker? This experience is highly recommended. Leave a comment about how it goes for you if you try, too, regarding your morning coffee as a sacred spiritual beverage. Your mornings might never be the same.