Tea. An act of DEEP SLOWNESS.

Will you share a cup of tea with me?

Welcome to Soft. Simple. Still. where like gentle butterflies that land upon your hand, soft words will land in your heart for profound healing, stillness and simplicity. Thank you for joining me here and sharing this publication with your community.

My dear friend,

In the midst of all that is going on in your life (and mine!)

Would you like to pause and be STILL with me today?
Would you like me to pour the tea and share my homemade bread with you?
Would you like to share stories or say nothing as we just pause in our daily life
…just to be Still?

I received this cup and saucer set when I was 21. That’s a looonnnng time ago - 32 years to be precise. I had packed it away and had forgotten about it until my Dad opened a box a few years ago that was in the back of his wardrobe…
and there it was.

I actually really love this tea set. It is so delicate. So other-worldly. So out-of-time from this era.

It reminds me of three people.

The first is an old neighbour from my childhood days. I grew up in a very friendly street where we would just knock on each others door and pop in, share a cuppa, ask for some sugar, stop at the fence and just catch-up.

This neighbour was a surrogate“Grandma” to all the children and adults in my street. Aunty Howard was a kind old woman who could sing opera and knew all the words to the crosswords.
Aunty Howard loved smoking her cigarettes, knitting baby clothes and watching the tennis until early hours of the morning.
And she loved her tea.

I remember visiting Aunty Howard a lot in my late teens. I would sit with her at her kitchen table that overlooked her backyard and her orange tree. She would usually be in her dressing grown, doing the crossword with a cigarette in the ashtray and a pot of tea on the table.

I remember her delicate tea cups and her tea pot and the way she would boil the kettle, then heat the tea pot, then WAIT while the pot warmed.

Sharing tea with her was a simple experience.

It felt timeless.

The kettle boils.
The tea pot is warmed.
The water is poured out.
The tea leaves are placed inside.
New hot water is poured over it.
The tea pot is turned three times one way and then one the other.
The tea pot is left to brew
and brew
and brew
And then,
only when the time is right,
it is poured,
in tiny cups that make you drink slowly,
just because they are so delicate.

It was a ritual.
It was a slow,
take your time,
come sit with me,
let us put everything else aside
and share a cup of tea ritual.

A slow cup of tea
and only when the first cup has been held and sipped and held in your hands some more did the conversation begin.

Drinking tea was slow.
It was soft.
It was shared with conversation and depth.
It was shared with an “elder.”

Aunty Howard introduced me to the gentle process of drinking tea.

Tea is slow.
It is an invitation to be slower.
To listen to the kettle boil.
To consciously choose the flavour of the tea I wish to have.
To heat up the pot.
To pour the water out.
To put the tea leaves in.
To put more hot water in the pot.
To turn the pot 3 times one way and one the other.
To let it sit.
And sit and sit some more.
To then pour the tea
and sup the flavour.
To hold the teacup
and look deep into the liquid held there.
To sip some more
and then when the time is right
to look up
and around
and come back to this time and place.

Tea with Aunty Howard made a sacred ritual of something as simple as drinking tea.

My tea set also reminds me of another beautiful person - Trish. She was around my Mum’s age. She too loved her tea, and usually drank it from her favourite cup. One time when I visited her she got the “best tea set out.” The one that lived behind the glass cupboard.

“You know I’ve never used this tea set before…I saved it ‘for a special occasion’. Let’s use it now.”

That cup of tea was a very special one. To be offered the tea from the ‘special unused set’ was an honour. It made the tea taste even more amazing .

Tea with Trish reminds me to use the special things NOW
knowing that each moment is a special occasion.

Finally my tea set reminds me of Greta. Greta lives up the road from me and is one of those people whose energy wraps you up and makes you feel wholesome, welcomed and deeply cared for. Greta also drinks tea from delicate tea cups that she just takes out of her cupboard and uses. Oh how I appreciate that. Each of her teacups and saucers have a different story to tell. Each teacup and saucer she shares with me offers time and space, and stillness and friendship.

Tea with Greta brings an appreciation of the old in a time and place that is modern and new, and welcomes this in a way that is natural and joyous and fun.

In a world that is busy
In a world that is full of doing and doing

Let us pause
Let us choose our favourite cup
Let us choose our favourite flavour
and let us just sit
and sit
and sit some more.

Let us just chat and share
and do nothing for a while,
Let us put the to-do-list down
and instead
look deep into the teacup,
Let us breathe in the aroma,
and looking at the still or slightly rippled liquid that is there,
Let us feel the warmth of it in our hands
and taste the flavour of it in our mouths

Let us,
just for this moment in time
take the good china out of the cupboard,
use the delicate teacup
and sip from it in delight,

in pure and simple delight.

In honour of the treasures we keep in cupboards
and the times when sipping from the delicate teacup makes life
soft simple and still.

Blessings

---

Let’s chat over tea…

Do you keep things in a cupboard to be used for a special occasion? If so, what is it, and if you do use it, when and for what occasion?
Why do you save those particular things for a special occasion?
Has there been anything in your cupboard that you have kept for a special occasion and as yet you have not used it? Why is that so?
Do you think those pieces will ever be truly appreciated unless they are used?
And then when you die, what would you like to happen to those “treasured pieces?”

LET’S CHAT OVER TEA MY FRIENDS…

If you would like a 1-1 healing /mentoring session, or if you would like to know more about my healing work, feel free to pour yourself a delicious cuppa and slowly browse my website.

I strongly believe that inspiring healing words and meditations should be available to everyone irrelevant of their income. Your financial patronage allows this to be so. Thank you for updating your subscription.