Late Coffee and Oranges in a Sunny Chair

There is a beam we can follow, a ray of light. We can cultivate it, add spiritual wattage to it, by being grateful for what we have — air, fresh water, sunshine, the use of our limbs, a child’s smile, iced coffee, a pen and paper. In his poem, “Sunday Morning,” the poet Wallace Stevens speaks of “Late coffee and oranges in a sunny chair.” These are simple things that bring simple pleasures. Our human minds tend to add complexity to our existence, and in that complexity there is suffering. Joy is simple. Joy is freedom. We do not need much. We think we need more, even when we have more. More necessitates the need for more. It is in human nature to seek out these excesses. Everyone, pauper or billionaire, desires one thing that has no price tag: peace of mind. This is outside of the material world. It is only to be found in the spiritual life. Spirituality must be cultivated the way a garden is weeded, watered, and fed. Growth comes with effort, time, and enduring the inevitable droughts and pestilence. The idea is to remain working in the garden, season after season, dusting yourself off and bringing it into blossom. Move forward, further along the way. Even when we do not feel it, we must believe it.