Click here to play today’s new podcast episode.
Tea Time Tuesday
Isn’t this teapot a hoot? Some busy woman thought, “If I could have 2 spouts, I could pour tea faster and get my work done more quickly!”
This week I was thinking how important it is to make time to catch your breath: seek a peaceful life.
As I am writing this post and thinking of all of you, I wish you could be here next to me and see the new pink roses I just bought for myself at the store. Or taste the delicious vegetable soup (veggies, sweet basil, garlic, onion, salt and pepper, chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, simmering that warmed us to our toes. Sweet conversation around our table—every night forever and always and listening and paying attention to each one seated with me—that is what I wish I could do with you.
Tea time by its very nature calls us to take a deep breath, sigh, get all the “hurries” out, and breathe. To really enjoy tea (or coffee or chai or hot chocolate) one must consciously take time to sip, to taste, to make it last. a slurped-down cup of tea is a waste.
Many of you have the Thanksgiving feast to participate in or to cook yourself—but to go into it with peace, you have to have made the way, you have to have taken time. The messes will still be there—maybe your elves can help you flurry a quick clean-up. The “should be done” will also still be there. But now, you are precious and I wish I could spoil you a bit and take care of you—but it is ok to rest or watch a sweet movie, put your feet up—this life we are called to is a marathon. Listen to what Leo Tolstoy said.
“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Family Happiness
Listen to what Paul said. This advice is just as important as any other he gave—accomplishing some great feat is no more important than living a quiet life if it is done in relationship with Jesus—who lived small, quiet, personal.
Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before. 12 Then people who are not believers will respect the way you live, and you will not need to depend on others.
I Thess: 4:11-12
One thing I have noticed is that my life has never slowed down, people have never quit needing something from me, deadlines have never ceased, and everyone keeps eating and wearing clothes that will need to be washed…again.
But, I have thought about this a lot over the years and especially this week. And I have set some boundaries, had to cancel some things, just so I can live a little bit more of my values this week.
Imagine that Tolstoy, so very famous and popular and from a very different time as ours, still focuses on what is good and true. A secluded life—one that is not too crammed with too many people—hidden away from opinions, pressures, the lure of being engaged in activities that steal from your energy and life. To be in nature and feel the beauty and calm. To have time to take a nap, to actually read a book straight through and ponder it, to listen to or play music—to have time and focus to really love one’s neighbor—and not make excuses for why you have to hurry away. This is what he considers a happy life. I am inclined to agree.
My own life speaks to me every day, all day long of the should, the things I could do and need to work on, the demands that are just outside my door that I might be able to fulfill. But, I resist. Say no, and am choosing to do things that are releasing, deeply refreshing to me as a way of life. I don’t want to miss what is important—and being in the moment is important.
I will be jostling in a small car with pies, peas, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and stuffing for two hours to Sarah’s house where I will get to kiss, hug, and play with my grandchildren on Thanksgiving day. I plan on eating too much—spending as much time as I can kissing and playing—and it will be the most important thing I do this week.
Praying you will have some quiet cups of tea, amidst your week and remember that you are quite precious and loved just as you are.