Rituals, Coffee, and Coffee

Humans need rituals. Some have Mass; some have morning coffee. One person I especially love brushes his teeth every morning before having his coffee, so that the coffee won’t stick to his teeth. His coffee must have a specific creamer and no sugar.

I dislike mornings; they’re chaotic and I’m groggy. I always oversleep and then, in a fog, need to plan how to best get ready in the allotted time, whatever it may be. There are constants: Putting on clothes, gathering the things I need for the day, feeding the cat. Then there are the variables: Do I eat a hurried breakfast standing at the counter or pack one to take with me? Do I brush my teeth at home or at work? Do I have time for some yoga or qi gong? Should I bother with hair and makeup, or slap my face a couple of times and smooth down the bedhead with my palms?

This morning I had some coffee. I almost never drink coffee, though I enjoy it when I do. (Sometimes it makes me a little jumpy and—to be honest—I don’t know how to use the coffee maker.) The coffee helped wake me up and added something special to the morning. It’s a very powerful drink. The deep ancestral part of my psyche thought, Coffee should be used in a ritual to honor some warm but mercurial god. Then I realized--It is. It’s a secular ritual, on its surface, but it is a ritual, and it’s devoted to those turbulent gods of morning and light.

Speaking of coffee, Whole Foods is carrying a fabulous, fabulous line of skin care products called Body Coffee. I treated myself to a bottle of moisturizer. Smells like heaven and feels like silk.