A friend of mine went on a perfume testing evening recently. It’s like wine tasting but instead you sniff a variety of different scents and get a lesson in types of perfume: oriental, woody etc.
“But”, I said, “after a few scents, how can you tell the difference, doesn’t your nose get confused?”
Apparently the answer is that after two or three sniffs, you bury your nose in a handful of coffee beans, which refreshes your sense of smell.
I think there’s a lesson here in how to live in a contemplative way. Modern life for most of us is constantly full of different smells, sounds, sights and activities. We’re bombarded all the time by onslaughts from the media. We have mobile phones, blackberries and email. We travel listening to our iPods. Well I won’t go on, you get the picture.
Sometimes even the faith services we attend are frenetic, especially for families who have to get the children up, dresssed and out by a certain time. And sadly, liturgy is often not approached with enough creativity and beauty.
So I think we need to find the equivalent of coffee beans in our contemplative lives. To sink into something that causes all those pressures to fade into the background temporarily. To refresh our spirits.
For me it’s being alone, often in the beauty of the natural world: a woodland walk, the smell and feel of the earth, the sound of the sea, of birdsong. Or sitting quietly, reading poetry, the glow of candles and smell of incense burning. The feel of my cat’s fur under my fingers, her vibrating throat.
You’ll notice I don’t include prayer. That’s because my experience of prayer is that it has its own challenges. It isn’t always restful, beautiful or easy. Nor, perhaps, should it be.
What are your coffee beans?
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good question Tess! My coffee beans would probably be sitting/petting my dogs, reading a short devotion out of a book, a prayer of gratitude (where I only Thank God for the blessings of the day and not go into great detail on other things) and also photography. There’s something about changing the way I see things – from the whole eye’s view down to just a viewfinder’s worth – that seems to center me in that way.
My coffee beans are similar to yours, yesterday though it was taking a long walk along the water with my camera in hand ready to be present to whatever beauty I found, then going to the women’s spa where I soaked for hours in warm water, and came home to snuggle with my sweet dog. Mmmm, I definitely feel renewed!
my coffee beans, too, are similar to yours. yesterday, however, it was a ride on my scooter & then my new little bug convertible. i am finding lately that sunshine and gentle wind on my body feel renewing and refreshing. i tried digging in the garden a bit which often refreshes me, but yesterday i needed the elements of light and wind as opposed to earth. i am reminded, too, of sitting and listening to the fourth element–water–as it ran in my little fountain and also driving by the lake and puget sound.