Time for Tea

I recently wrote this article for the Holistic Moms Newsletter. See below.

The power of tea. Tea has the ability to calm, excite, focus, provide peace, and encourage a personal single moment of bliss. This bliss is what I experienced for the first time during a Holistic Moms Leaders meeting. Deborah welcomed us into her home, and put on a simple pot of Rooibus tea. Prior to this meeting I drank green tea because I knew that it was said to be good for me, but I didn’t enjoy a single cup of tea until I drank it with wise women. We sat around and drank endless cups of tea while planning 2008 meetings, and ended our meeting with story telling from our youth that had us roaring in laughter while we clutched our tea. The tea was offered as a drink to bring us together, and it provided a space between all of us that helped weave together our stories and our lives. With our tea in hand we made intentions for the coming year, circling in the visions of our heart for our local Holistic Moms Network.

Since that meeting I have drank and enjoyed tea with many friends, and on my own. I make tea while I’m in the midst of cooking dinner, with my toddler underfoot and my husband busily telling me stories of his workday. The secret that my husband and toddler don’t know is that even while my kitchen is bustling, the tea in my cup is offering me a quiet calm that sustains my womanhood. I wish I had known about the power of tea to be so enchanting, and deliver me peace starting at the very sound of the water hitting my mug, but until I drank it with women, I might have never known the power it can offer.

What did I drink before tea? Coffee in the form of 2 cups of day for much need pick me ups. I’ve met friends for coffee and enjoyed coffee most of my life since age 18, yet it never offered me the power of peace. Now as I drink my tea, I feel as though my cup contains life energy, sustaining me and offering a possibility that coffee may have lacked. I enter tea rooms and tea aisles in stores as a child might enter a candy shop, full of possibility, hope, and wonderment. Tea has changed me and brought something to my life by its very essence, and the essence came alive through the women that I drank it with. A few days ago I drank tea in a circle at work, with women I had just met, and each sip gave me a moment of calm that brought focus to my mind and sparked ideas that led the way for a project I am working on. Tea is a journey, a mystery, and a new path for me to discover more about who I am. It started with the power of women joining together for a common goal, and has now entered my life forever. My daughter and I share tea together in the afternoon, and I watch her while we drink, and together we share a silent space that is joyous and peaceful for both of us. Tea and womanhood together are a combination extroadinaire! I am currently reading the book “Three cups of tea” and am learning that I am joining into a habit that has been enjoyed for thousands of years, and its power can only be measured by the peace in our heart.