Support from the Universe

Back when I was first writing about giving up takeout cups for lent, I asked myself why I so often wanted to drive up to Starbucks for a hot latte in a palm-warming large-sized paper cup. It's like buying a bit of support from the universe: slow-release caffeine muted by milk, soothing as hot cocoa, but with an adult flavor. Now that I've given up the take-out, and find myself drinking much less coffee in general, I still sometimes feel the need for that "support." Perhaps it's not the coffee after all, but rather the need to feel that when my supply of energy, warmth, support is low, that I can drive up to a window for a refill without taking a rest, or thinking about why I need support, or, indeed figuring out where support comes from. "I lift mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help," the Psalmist once wrote. "My help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth." Perhaps what I need more than coffee is a moment of prayer, an awareness of the breath that draws every few seconds on the support of the air.