Pipeology - The Fine Art of Pipe Smoking and Thought

 I died nearly twice in the past fifteen years.  The next major event just might end my life, so I try to just take it easy.  My philosophy about life has changed for many reasons.  It might seem that having an experience with Angels might be THE definitive event in a life, but instead of waiting to die I await the coming of the Messiah.   My heart functions at about 50%, so I try to avoid stress as much as I can.  I take medication for both my heart and my mind as I know myself quite well.  My son gave me his old Apple Watch I wear religiously.  If I should fall and get hurt, I can send as SOS message to my wife.  It detects falls.  It can do an EKG but I have yet to figure that function out.   Stress, however, is my worst enemy.  It not only can affect my heart, but my mind as well.  I check my heart beats per minute every so often and I can pretty much guess what the results are.  I am very much in tune with both m...

 My wife and I will be packing for a three month stay in NY, but we already have a lot of stuff up there.  My wife was talking about spending a night in the Catskills or somewhere up there.  I told her too we aren’t far from either New Hampshire or Vermont.  I doubt I will take my pipes and stuff with me for an over night stay.   But I’ll be smoking my pipes mostly on the deck or garage, if it raining.  The deer are always curious about us and each season they come around and seem to be checking in on me.  It takes them a couple of weeks to get used to seeing me out, but once they decide I’m of no danger to them they just go about their business.   One spring we counted about 21 deer in our front yard grazing in our grass.  I can often hear them tramping in the woods behind the deck.  I’ll look for them and then turn my head and there they are.  Often there is a doe with her fawn.  The fawns are more brace as they haven’t learn...

 When I was a younger pipe smoker, the other guys and I laughed at the old guys who had a rag on their laps while smoking a pipe.  Well, guess what?  I now am one of those old guys who keeps a cloth handy.  Today our cloths are different.  They are now micro fiber cloths we toss when dirty. Except it seems my wife never sees my cloths when they are clean.  To her they are always dirty.  It it were up to me I’d keep them twice longer than when she replaces them.  It seems my cloths are never clean enough for her.  I’ll often wipe the inside of my bowls with these cloths.  I don’t use them as often as it seems I do.  But to me they are my evidence I smoke a pipe. But why use them?  It seems she’s always complaining my cloths are dirty.  They just are well-used.  Sure, after a few days they look like used oil cloths one might use while working on cars.  But if a cloth has a clean spot left I’ll still use it.  A...

 Yesterday I spoke of the warmth of a pipe.  I always smoke my first bowl with a cup of coffee.  Both are warm.  Some might suggest a glass of rum or whiskey with a pipe.  I have a bottle of rum that is over a year old on our shelf.  It takes me a long time to drink the hard stuff with a pipe.   I’ve found coffee is best with a pipe.  I’ve had the hard stuff with both a pipe and cigar.  But I’ve found coffee t is the best.  I like both the warmth of a pipe and coffee the best.  Even on the hottest of days coffee is best with a pipe.  We’re now thinking about our summer in NY.  I love the cool mornings in NY the best.   We are leaving Friday for NY and I will be taking both Proper English by Peter Stokkebye and Stratfordshire by Cornell and Diego with me to NY.  The rest will remain here in Florida.  I’m looking forward to going to NY for the summer.  Our coffee maker here in Florida is a pour over maker...

 The smoke from a pipe is the result of the pipe being warm.  The flame causes the smoke and as a result the pipe is warmed by the heat from the tobacco.  Heat is the spiritual result of the smoke that rises from a pipe.  I think of the smoke that rises from a pipe as the spiritual aspect of the pipe.   I don’t see visions in the smoke, but what I do see is a dormant pipe coming to life to serve a divine purpose for me.  It means one simple thing:  Relaxation.  And when I am relaxed meditation follows.  It’s why for me a pipe is a tool that serves the Divine. Some might suggest this is just an excuse for smoking a pipe.  Could I meditate just as well without a pipe?  Probably.  But when my Angels said smoking a pipe was up to me, a pipe is how I connect my Spirituality with an inanimate object.  It is a tool.  Nothing more and nothing less.   Pipes have served this purpose for thousands of years with other ingred...

 Every Sunday morning I listen to Sunday Morning Coffee.  It is a music album put together by Chip Davis of Mannheim Steamroller fame.  I just sit here quietly listening while drinking my coffee and smoking my pipe.  I am usually out in the lanai while my wife sleeps in.  For me, at least, it is the best part of the week.   Not that I don’t have a lot to do during the week, but still Sunday mornings have been special for as long as I can remember.  I bought this album as a CD in the early 90’s but now I listen to it on Spotify.  My favorite track is ‘A Secret Romance’ which for me has always been my Angels.   One might think I’d be in church on Sunday mornings, but my Angels changed my theology.  I tried church once since the Angels, having gone for about two years.  But every Sunday morning I attended church during that time I asked myself why I was there.  I finally came to the conclusion that if I had to ask myself this ques...