On, In, and Around Mondays: Re-Covering Time
I place a white porcelain cover on the small white porcelain tea pot. Over this, I place the white tea cozy, with the red and beige stripes and two little red birds, seemingly in conversation. I leave them to their private whisperings, give the tea time to steep.
Loose tea takes longer than a tea bag. I must find a spoon. I must twist the cover off the tea caddy and dip inside, measure out what I desire, and scatter it into the tea basket. I must let the leaves unfurl in the steamy darkness. Is eight minutes—start to finish—too long to wait for heaven?
Now sipping my Christmas tea, the eight minutes already a memory, I peruse two different books. One about tea, one about bread. I turn the pages slowly, write my favorite lines onto colored cards. Tea cuttings, I learn, take around a year to a year and three months to reach a stage where they can be planted in the tea garden. Then they must grow 15-18 inches before they are eligible to be severely pruned, and once again take time to grow into a flat table, a plucking table.
Bread is similar, in regards to time. We can use flour artificially aged with bleach and bromate (bromate being outlawed in European countries, because it is a carcinogen). Or we can use flour set out in the air, where oxygen, the very thing we breathe, will refine qualities, ultimately cultivate taste.
We don't have time for the line, said an essay in the book I reviewed last week.
The line, a single row of words—have we really no time?
If we have no time for the line, we have no time for loose tea. We have no time for the tea bush, gently coaxed to golden bud. We have no time for finely structured bread.
Let me, let me re-cover time... for the single line, the tea, the bread.
________
On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...
Labels: life management, On in and Around Mondays, sabbath, tea
posted by L.L. Barkat at 11:00 AM
11 Comments:
I love how you draw out the lesson for all of life from this seemingly mundane moment. I grew up making iced tea from leaves, and we make bread ourselves, although I had never heard that about aging flour! Homemade is always worth the extra time. Thoughts to ponder in the grander scheme of things...
This is on my bucket list :). Yes, I know. That makes absolutely no sense. Why do I tell myself that when the time comes, I will re-cover time?
The time is now. I am in this moment.
Maybe I'll have a cup of tea.
Sometimes I feel quite sure that I am the one steeping. God is so patient with me. Love to you for slowing down and showing this to me.
The best advice I ever read was to not live each day as if it was your last, but as if you had all the time you ever could want. What would you do if you knew there was no hurry? That's where the deepening into soul's truth happens.
recovering time - learning how to steep our time with life! It's afters school time, and I think I will steep a cup of hot tea and sit to steep in life as my boys come through the door! Life is meant to be lived that way - what a perfect Monday reminder!
May God bless you today, L. L. May his peace fill and still your heart. May he occupy you during your quiet times and your busy times. May he re-create your life IN HIM.
My link doesn't seem to be showing up on your site. Perhaps I've not been patient enough.
But here is my "On Mondays... "
http://kingfishercrossing.blogspot.com/2011/11/gods-program-never-gets-outdated.html
Sipping tea as I read.
Love how you start and end under cover.
i really, really enjoyed reading this. makes me want to brew some tea and read a book in a cozy corner. i believe i will.
thank you for this lovely post. love the last line.
blessings in His grace,
Nacole
i really, really enjoyed reading this. makes me want to brew some tea and read a book in a cozy corner. i believe i will.
thank you for this lovely post. love the last line.
blessings in His grace,
Nacole
I love the idea that we are eternal beings. We need not hurry. Think about it. We have all the time in the world.
Tea steeping in pots is such a normal part of our every day here all throughout the days. And fresh bread is set out to rise at least once a week to feel and nourish us through the week.
These simple moments of time are so normal to us here, I forget that it is not that way for everyone and did not use to be so for us. It is not a bother and doesn't take long in the scheme of things.
For me, hand-grinding my coffee and waiting for the percolator to boil is another way to slow down and savor a moment. Yes, it takes a bit more, but really, it is worth it.
And doing these little rituals is certainly easier and take less time than running to a store, or even driving through the coffee line. It is a new/old simple way of living.
I also delight in my coffee and tea cozies as well. :) And they do make a difference, don't they?
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