The Spiritual Pipe

 Today is Sunday and Mother's Day.  Sunday's are my really Spiritual days and thought I'd write about my pipes being tools for my Spirituality this morning.  But first, a Happy Mother's Day to the moms who are reading this post.  I've written so much about how pipes are part of my Spiritual life, but they are a hobby along with my tobacco choices.  I find pipes to be a very enjoyable and fascinating hobby.  I enjoy looking at and reading about pipes and tobacco and still find myself learning something new as I did deertongue the other day.  I guess most anyone might ask why after fifty years I've stayed with a pipe.

It's rather difficult to explain, but I'm not an evangelist for pipe smoking.  It might be best if no one used tobacco products, but then no one should use alcohol or Marijuana for that matter.  Smoking herbs is still smoking and any smoke isn't good good for anyone.  But I'll make an exception for myself and say the benefits outweigh the risks and leave it at that.  I just might be an exception to the rule.

But why a pipe, you might ask.  It was a part of me before I became a Spiritual person and nothing said I had to give them up.  I wouldn't do it as most anything that gives us pleasure we might not do otherwise.  I get pleasure from a pipe.  I've found cigars to simply be too costly and risky to my health.  However, about once a year or so I'll go to a place for either an Arturo Fuente Hemingway Signature or a Short Story cigar.  But a pipe is so different.  I'm unusual in many respects and a pipe these days is more unusual than usual as it once was.

I've been fascinated by pipes ever since I was a kid.  I grew up observing men mostly, smoking pipes, and I became fascinated by pipes.  That fascination never left me.  There is something about a pipe only another pipe smoker would understand.  It's not about a woman lighting a man's pipe, for example.  Ot even that a pipe is sexy.  It kind of used be that way, but these days it's about the pleasure a pipe gives.  It's about that word so often associated with pipes:  Relaxation.

We seek relaxation in life.  It's stressful to just live in today's world.  Maybe just meditation could be enough for many.  Ot even Yoga classes, or whatever we do to relax.  Alcohol is NOT the answer, but for too many it is.  I find a glass of wine to be relaxing and that along with a pipe might be among the best, but I'm careful with any alcohol.  There are too many risks with it.  But not so much with a pipe.  I can smoke a pipe anytime I wish.  And I can go without it for periods of time.  It might be more of a  psychological addiction than it is a physical addiction.

But unlike it used to be, I just can't smoke a pipe anywhere I wish.  A pipe almost requires seclusion these days.  I've had fantasies of just sitting on a beach smoking my pipe, but few people around is necessary.  I understand when and where I can smoke a pipe.  But often I am by myself lost in thought.  I'm very comfortable being by myself.  This is what pipe smokers often are these days.  My Dunhill pipe will be seen by very few.  But I don't seem to mind.  

I see my pipes as tools.  They are tools for thought and tools for quiet meditatiion.  I'm usually out of the way bothering no one.    I'm fascinated by so many tobacco choices and they all cost about the same.  Unlike wine with varying prices, tobacco is very affordable.  I simply find relaxation and pleasure in the pipe.  Today it is my Nording Angel pipe with. some Boyou Morning.  My coffee this morning is the same it has been lately; a hot black cup of Guatamalan coffee.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.  And to the moms--Happy Mother's Day!  Every mom is worth dollars compared to the quarters in our lives!

Dave