The restorative power of tea

Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves - slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.
~ Thich Nhat Hahn

It was kind of amazing, actually. I woke up early this morning with my throat hurting, and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went ahead and got up about an hour early. I didn't accomplish anything, just read email and a few websites at a more leisurely pace than usual

I showered, and went to work, and I didn't feel too bad, but after about an hour I was thinking that I might go home after lunch. Then I was thinking I might go home before lunch, or maybe right then. Because I felt really awful, like what I really wanted to do was lay my head down on my desk. Which wouldn't have looked very good, really. Not terribly professional, not that we're all that professional here, of course.

But then Bob called to check on me, and I told him I wasn't feeling very well, and he told me to go make a cup of tea, and, as I usually do, I said okay, but it was more like, yeah, yeah, whatever, but then I thought, well, tea does sound kind of good.

I had that whole chai obsession last winter, but since I've been trying to lose weight, I cut it out, because it has sugar in it and each cup has something like 24 carbohydrate grames. Since it's getting cooler, I've been missing it, so I had bought some chai black tea bags a couple of weeks ago (the stuff I was drinking before was a mix). I tried it, but it tasted bitter to me, and I hadn't tried it again.

But I went ahead and made a cup this morning, and I guess I had made it too strong last time, because this time it was just right. And it was amazing--I didn't actually think about it at the time that I was drinking it, but a little while later, I thought, wow, I don't feel bad anymore, in fact, I feel pretty good! So I made another cup. I had it in my Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas mug that Barb gave me for Christmas last year, so maybe that helped, too.

Maybe the British actually know what they're talking about.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month