Bringing your own cup a thing of the past?

I meet so often with ReclaimingSpirit at coffee shops in the area - mainly the coffee shop in Borders. I'd rather we met at local, independent coffee places, but it seems that they're in short supply these days. My favorite local coffee place is only open till 6pm now - it used to be 10pm.

I started feeling guilty about the paper cups I used at least once a week, so I decided to bring my commuter coffee mug. And the baristas didn't know what to do - both times they gave it a funny look, hemmed and hawed on how to ring up the sale. I don't mind paying full price for a cup of coffee, since it is a business and theoretically we could meet in the parking lot of the Kmart or something. But isn't bring one's own coffee cup one of the staples of green and simple living? I am perturbed.

I am additionally disturbed by the number of phone books I've received, and the fact that I can't figure out what the hell to do with them. I'm going to sneak them into the old phone book bin at work.

All bitching aside, we've done pretty well this month. With a few exceptions, we're sticking to our budget admirably. My bulbs are starting to peek up, despite the upcoming snow - March and April are the snowiest months in Colorado, allegedly. And I didn't kick in the television set after the 400th time the Quizno's girl declared that meat is "what real women need! heeeheeeheeehee!" (I take my pluses where I find them).

Mediations on simple living

In preparation for organized spiritual studies with A Big Name Teacher, I've been sitting in silence every day. In my teens, I meditated every day using a method where you count your breaths. Breathe in, breathe out - one. Breathe in, breath out - two. You'd count four breaths before starting over. As you count, focusing only on your breath and the number, your thoughts start to fall away and eventually your mind is quieted.

The method I'm using now involves sitting in silence. No counting, no trying to keep your thoughts still. I sit, and let my thoughts come up, and then let them go. Before long, mind and body settle down and your mind rests.

The difference is how I react to my thoughts. When I counted breaths, my thoughts were annoying intrusions to be shooed away like flies. Now I observe my thoughts as they come up, trying not to judge them (which is the hardest part). When I really watch what my mind comes up with to think about without me thinking about it, I surprise myself.

My mind covers a lot of ground in just a few minutes when I meditate, sort of like a headless chicken scurrying to cover ground before dropping dead. My mind is an enormous worry-wart. I worry about money, groceries, the gutters, the rotors on the car. My mind also continuously runs over how I treated people that day, and how I was treated in turn.

When I am in a situation, and I realize that this has come up during my meditations. I recognize the emotion, the thought, the worry. My mind had time earlier to work on it, free from interuptions and outside noise. And I can deal with the situation a little more effectively.

When I set aside time in the day to open a space in myself where I can watch my thoughts, I can be a more effective person. My day is so noisy, with workplace noise and phone calls, music in my car, more music or the TV when I'm home.

I feel like since I've started setting aside time to listen to myself, I'm figuring out that I'm smarter than I knew.