Tea is for Human Beings...

...however, for years I’ve been called a human doing. Always sounded like a compliment to me. Constant activity, productivity, ticking off to-do lists were all good things. The daily tasks, stillness, quietude were a waste of... well, perfectly usable moments! Recurring duties, like laundry or vacuuming, just gobbled up time from something really important I could be doing. Washing dishes held me back from accomplishing something great with my time!

     In the midst of all this intense doing, Barefoot Girl was born. Perfect and beautiful, possessing an air of profound contentment from her very beginning. She was a human being. As she grew, she taught me so much about being. Being still, being quiet, being content with the dailiness of life. While doing dishes, she does not strive to accomplish something great but often sings or smiles as she thinks deeply about beautiful things important to her. She is fond of saying life is in the dailies and she lives this out by celebrating the routine tasks of setting meal tables, making beds, or mending clothes. She encourages me to be still and inhale the scent of flowers from her garden or stargaze on frosty nights or linger by the fire. It’s good to take some moments and simply be. She is teaching, I am learning.

     At times our temperaments have clashed as my drive to do collides with her quest to be. Yet, after two dozen years together, she has reformed me. Now, when grown, or growing, children return home from work or for a weekend visit, I’m the one saying, Sit with me, rest, refresh yourself and together we be.

     I think tea is the perfect accompaniment to human beings. The routine, the stillness, the quiet of steeping tea leaves takes slow minutes to accomplish. Minutes that could be spent doing more important things, perhaps, but maybe, choosing to complete this quotidian task for loved ones is... heroic.

     I firmly agree with Barefoot Girl, Life is in the dailies! (although I still don’t sing while washing dishes!)  May tea always be a part of your daily routine.