Much has changed in my life in recent years, as I’ve morphed from law-firm-lawyer to work-at-home-mom to stay-at-home-mom to aspiring writer, but some things have stayed the same, and one thing in particular has been a source of comfort to me as I navigated each of those very different situations: in the early afternoon I have a cup of tea. It’s a small treat, just a small break in my day. Most of the time the only “break” is the actual brewing of the tea- once it’s made, I often return immediately to whatever I was working on, mug of tea in hand. “Whatever I was working on” varied widely in different times of my life- it could have been writing a law memorandum in an air-conditioned suite, or sitting in my home office (a.k.a. corner of my living room) shuffling through piles of work papers interspersed with baby magazines and a note from day care that my daughter might have been exposed to strep throat, or more recently, sitting with my daughter on the couch and wondering why I had bought her a sewing kit that came with hopelessly confusing instructions.
My tea time ritual is a little oasis during my day- I stop whatever work/family thing I’m doing, listen to the kettle pop and gurgle as the water heats, and ponder which tea to drink. I’m no tea aficionado- I just get regular bagged tea, in herbal and decaf black varieties, but nonetheless it’s a treat to pick the flavor and anticipate the comforting warmth of the mug in my hands. Speaking of warmth, I used to reserve my afternoon tea for colder days, but then I read The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
So this little daily tea ritual that I have, small and unassuming as it is, is one of my favorite parts of the day. In this month’s Good Housekeeping
