While I love my morning cup of coffee, throughout the day I’m a tea drinker (the non-caffeinated variety so I’m not bouncing off the walls while I’m trying to work).
I’m not sure when I got into the practice, but it reminds me of my beloved grandmother.
She was a devoted tea drinker – consuming countless cups of the caffeinated brew on any given day – all daintily prepared in her white, bone-china tea pot. Maybe it was all that tea which helped her live to be 93 years old. Who knows, right?
Maybe my grandmother and I have some English breeding somewhere in our genealogy. We both love tea (and those little tea biscuits you always see people on Downton Abbey munching on).
As I sit here writing this post while drinking a cup of freshly brewed peppermint tea, I remember to check the white label at the end of my tea bag string.
I enjoy the insightful little quotes the manufacturer has kindly printed on each label. Sometimes I have to go through a few boxes before a new collection appears, and today was one of those days. The quote read simply…
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
That quote reminded me of my grandmother. I don’t believe I ever remember her hurrying to do anything. She always seemed to be enjoying the process of any given task – relishing in the opportunity to be alive and to experience life as it comes.
As I take another sip of my peppermint tea – slowly to enjoy the warm, calming effects of the brew – I realize just how opposite I am from my grandmother’s unhurried nature.
At any given time, my brain is overrun with an ever-growing to-do-list as I try to formulate a plan to accomplish all the tasks before me. It causes me stressful days and a host of sleepless nights and adds little to no benefit to my overall existence.
On numerous occasions, I’d pay an unexpected (yet always welcomed) visit to my grandmother and you know what we’d do? We’d sit at her kitchen table enjoying tea from her white, bone-china tea pot and biscuits from her “snack” cabinet.
We were in no hurry, there were no pressures over what needed to get accomplished. We were just two tea drinkers taking time for idle chatter while enjoying and appreciating the company.
Life has become far too chaotic. Turn off all the distractions, set aside your to-do-list – everything will get accomplished in its own time I assure you.
I’ve reached the bottom of my tea cup. As I contemplate brewing another, I think to myself this time around I might just sit back and truly enjoy just being a tea drinker.
