Tag Archives: tea

it’s the little things

January 7, 2010

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December, as each year ends, and January, as another year starts, bring out a lot of talk about goals and plans, and hopes, dreams, and aspirations, for hearth and home, for work, for family life, for spirit, for health, for, well, everything. This has started me thinking, not about major life changing goals, although that would probably be a good idea, too, but about simpler things.

Such as….

I want to pay more attention to the pleasant small things in my life. I tend to rush around or run on autopilot a lot. I run through chores while dwelling on the next thing I need to do or maybe thinking of some larger issue. That’s a good thing sometimes; I need to work that way through some of my morning routine, to get a lot done at home before leaving for work; I’d rather it go quickly as opposed to having to wake up earlier (I rise at 6am as it is). And it helps make morning chores more palatable, at least for me. I know there’s honor in honest work, really, I do, but that doesn’t mean I want to dwell over cleaning out cat bowls and litter pans, or even brushing teeth.

But I don’t need to ignore things around me all the time. I know I don’t really do that — who can? — but sometimes it feels that way.

So here’s to some of the glossed over pleasures…things that I want to notice and then stop a moment to savor…

    The aroma of a freshly opened package of tea
    The first sip from a steaming mug of tea
    Juliet’s soft purr and her sweet furry belly
    Channel surfing on the radio and catching an old favorite
    Figuring out the catch/theme in the crossword puzzle
    The delightful taste of a bit of dark chocolate
    The satisfaction of a good hair day
    The warmth of the sun on my hands
    The ahhh of reading a good book
    The beauty of a particularly clear night with a low moon
    The song and the excitement of birds piping in the bushes just outside my window
    Breezes in the spring and summer

And one more thing: noticing the myriad of other wonderful bits of life I haven’t listed.

What are the sweet little things in your life? There’s likely more than you realize.

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best of 2009: Tea!!!

December 16, 2009

I’m trying something new for me this month, a web community challenge: Gwen Bell’s The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. Find the best the year has offered me, and review, remember, contemplate, reflect, and celebrate it. There’s a question/topic each day.

Today’s topic might have been written for me: December 16 — Tea of the year. I can taste my favorite tea right now. What’s yours?

I’m a tea person, meaning I drink tea, lots and lots of tea. I drink it daily, all day long, mostly blacks, but there are times for greens, whites, and oolongs, too. I steep pots of tea for the office. Others share in, and when I’m out, some of the crew doesn’t even try to steep their own. My twitter bio includes the phrase “crazy cat and tea lady”. When I host gatherings at home, everyone knows that there will be freshly steeped pots of tea ready. I have shelves set up in my living room to hold most (but not all) of my tea paraphernalia:

I’m not an expert about tea but I know more than the average joe.

But thinking of the best tea of the year? Hmm, I almost want to say: All of them! But no, that’s not right. There have definitely been some pots I’d call sub-par. Still, the rest were just dandy. So my best tea is: yunnan and keemun which I’ve loved since college and a lovely sencha I steep on weekends and the old, nearly empty tin of Kashmiri chai that’s full of cardamom and the Earl Grey I made a few days ago that reminded me that sometimes I still like Earl Grey and the vanilla tea I brew for my friend on weekends, plus the Ceylon OPA that I buy in bulk at a local Indian market. Oh, also the Turkish tea I bought at the same market that my friend doesn’t like at all, but I do, more and more. And though they’re, strictly speaking, not real tea, there’s also the lavender I brew late at night sometimes and the barley tea that my favorite Japanese restaurant serves as house tea.

Ummm, tea!

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