Just when I thought it was over….When I wrote this blog post series on tea, I thought I was a bit nutty. That no one out here besides me cared. (Although I knew the later was not true, just not sure any of my readers cared.) Thanks for the comments on the blog and Facebook saying you did, were interested and were learning.
I'm back to share another story on the healing power of tea. I shared in Part II, a couple of my "go-to" tea cold remedies. And for the drinking readers out there (ha,) you know that sipping tea is synonymous with slowing down a bit and take a moment's breather. At least. But, for as many years I've been drinking tea, I didn't discover the truly de-stressing powers of the hot beverage until the last half-dozen years.
Last Wednesday morning was stressful. Grace had an appointment with Social Security to claim benefits because she is now an adult with a disAbility. I barely got out the door with any breakfast, let alone tea. But, I did have the sense to brew what I was craving: chamomile. Good choice. Starting when I was pregnant with my now adult child, I have learned to listen to what my body craves–down to certain vitamins and minerals (it helps to know what foods have these properties). So, that rush-rush, stressful meeting morning, that craving–it was probably my body's intuitive way of saying: "Take some chill-out tea for this venture. You'll need it!"
I was nervous about the meeting as at nearly at the last minute, I didn't think I'd done all I should have to prepare and I'd heard so many horror stories of the process. (Long, long story.) And, funny, as I write that, I think it sounds awful lot like the process of entering the school systems with a child who's recently been diagnosed with a disAbility. Perhaps I was not taking my own advice here. The game has changed and it's a lot more bureaucratic now with a lot less relationships to be formed by fewer people delivering less services. And, who ever heard of a governmental office being warm and fuzzy?!
I digress.
It was Wednesday following a long-holiday weekend, with an extra day tacked on for Grace to go to the beach with his father and grandmother. She got back in the night before. Our appointment was at 9 that next morning. Okay: be early. But, being early meant we stood outside in 30 degrees temps–Grace with remenants of a cold–for those 15 minutes we showed up before our appointment. Out came the Teavanna mug with steaming chamomile. Sip. Sip. Warm. And then, midway through the interview, sip some more. And that's when I noticed that medicinal effect that I'd known of for more than two decades but only in the last half-dozen actually felt. So, remember: it's takes good tea. A fresh variety. Brewing according to directions. No wonder I never experienced the benefits of chamomile's calm when I was buying less tasty brands; purchasing them, unknowingly, old, sometimes; using less than stellar (microwaved) water and letting my cup get cold.
I'm glad I've learned these little tips over recent years because that day, that tea in the middle of that interview with a government bureaucrat, was the equivalent of a delicious yoga pose, a shoulder massage or maybe a hit of Xanax (or so I hear of the later).
May you also savor the joys and find your little oasis in a good cup of tea. Life is beginning to bloom on beloved bare branches, but March, here, has started out fickle with snow, cold and warm and back to cold again. And right now? I'm sipping chamomile and lavendar. Ahhh. Thanks for reading!
