Jelly Coconut Meditation.

A Jelly Coconut is a gift of hydration from God. The perfect jelly has a big cup, and it's husk gives way readily to the whack of a well sharpened machete. When the water is drunk, "spoons" are cut from the husk, and these are then used to scoop the jelly out of the split coconut. Complete self-sufficient coconut - perfect oral rehydration fluid.

The old time, traditional way of drinking a Jelly Coconut involved putting one's mouth directly on the chopped open nut. In order to not spill a drop, one faces down to place ones lips at the welcoming, heart-washing opening of the slashed Jelly coconut. Slowly tipping up, sipping up, gulping, guzzling as the refreshing water fills one's belly, cooling from the inside out, all the way down.

As the liquid nourishment changes location from jelly to belly, one's face and head move; with the coconut, one's neck arches back, until the final drops are drunk, with eyes facing the heavens, perhaps looking up through the leaves of a tree (if this is a rural refreshment stand); perhaps looking up between the columns of a concrete jungle in the urban setting. But the end of the coconut water included a look at the heavens. Perhaps a moment of thanksgiving, for the nourishment, the break from the rush, the cooling in the tropical heat, the heart being washed clean clean. Maybe on that day, without the jelly coconut, there wouldn't have been a look at the heavens and a moment to pause and give thanks.

Nowadays, the completely environmentally friendly and self-sufficient jelly coconut has been the victim of progress. Most jelly vendors provide you with a plastic, non-biodegradable straw. Lips no longer need to touch the organic husk of the green coconut - they can rest instead on the dubious chemicals in the plastic of the straw. Instead of tipping and sipping, gulping and guzzling the whole refreshment is now consumed via one long suck (or maybe a sequence of sucks). One's face remains face down, peering at the dirt below the coconut. Never rising to the face the heavens as the cup empties, never positioning oneself for an upward look in thanksgiving. When the jelly is drunk, belly full, heart washed yes - but heavenly meditation, environmentally friendly consumerism? No, not in this modern-day jelly coconut drinking dispensation. Not at all. Progress sometimes finds ways to make rubbish out of perfection.

I like it the old-fashioned way, heart-washed, and the grande finale of soul rinsing off with the last swallow of coconut water, hands embracing the green globe of refreshment, and a look at the heavens.