Saturday, January 9, 2010

Magic in a Mug

(photo credit)

It has been one hell of a journey these past three weeks and I apologize for the lack of posts. I’d attempt to explain myself but the explanations would only be interesting to me. Ok, I take that back. The explanations are pretty interesting but I’d rather not explain myself here.

Speaking of explaining yourself, I used to ask myself, “Why can’t you just be you without explanation?” One “resolution” I’ve made for myself this year is to be brave enough to just be me without explanation.

But that’s another post. This post is about the magic of tea. Tea has been a comfort for me these last few weeks. Especially this week since I’ve been sick. Everyone has been reminding me to “drink more liquids.” Well tea is nice and warm and liquidy. So I’ve been drinking lots. Of tea, that is.

Something happens when I wrap my hands around a warm mug of tea. The steam rising up from the fragrant leaves. Honey, milk, two sugars or one, lemon, however you take it, tea warms the spirit.

Especially on cold days, when I feel like a miserable old bear that has been rudely awakened from the middle of his hibernation sleep, a cup of tea will make me warmer towards people and towards myself.

Hot tea relaxes me. One sip and, “Ahhhh, thank goodness for everything.” It’s all right if I have to get up early in the morning for work or if I have to drive 30 minutes to another town to attend a board meeting.

If I have tea I can conquer with goodness and joyness and will readily wield hot tea in the faces of all who oppose me! OK, that would only work if the tea was scalding and if I actually wanted to throw it in the faces of my mortal enemies… or just some crumby people.

But when drinking hot tea I feel as if I have no mortal enemies and there are no crumby people. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not some self-appointed super hero with a Dr. Horrible type trying to get me with a Freeze Ray. But sometimes, everyday life feels like a page from a comic book.

“Captian Skemp threw herself at the villainous stack of papers in her inbox!” KAPLOW! KABLAM! “Take that you stack of sh**!”

Hot tea. Yeah. It calms the beast inside me. But, I’m not the only one who thinks a mug of hot tea is magical.

A friend and I were standing in the kitchen one night drinking tea (no way!), when my friend told me of a study that showed holding a cup of warmth can actually make you happier and warmer to other people.

My friend was right. According to a Yale University study, seems holding something warm, like a hot cup of tea, really does make people feel warmer towards other human beings, happy even.

On top of that, tea has been given an entire month of happiness. The month of January is National Hot Tea Month.

So drink up the warmth and goodness and magical happiness that is hot tea.

While this post is about tea, I am not prejudiced to other hot liquids. (Hot buttered rum, coffee, warm milk, hot chocolate)

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