~Tea Things Tuesday~

You know I love tea and all things tea, so I hope you will join me and Kim as we share our tea inspirations with you. Be sure to visit Kim and other participants after your visit here, and see what they have to share with you. Just click on the pretty teacup to the right.








We enjoyed the company of family from Southern Californis this week-end, including their 3 yr. old and 1 yr. old daughters. They are just adorable and kept us laughing at their sweet antics...we went to the little farm at Tilden Park, where my husband worked for 35 years, and then on to the carousel...it was a good day and a good week-end. I haven't had a chance to post or read any blogs til today, but it was really a nice break, and I found that, even though my body was on the move constantly, my mind was resting from the sometimes overwhelming thoughts of home projects. Even as I watched the girls as they swung a little chair over the top of my teacup holder...even as I bit my tongue as they clanged the lid of my silver sugar bowl against the glass top of the coffee table...even as I held my breath while they insisted they could put the grape jelly on their toast as they sat at the dining table, covered with my white battenburg tablecloth, I thought, "All of my decorating efforts are for a time such as this...to offer hospitality to my loved ones. After all, they are the reason I do this in the first place."



I am at a somewhat slow and lazy pace today, so I decided not to get my camera and tea things out, but instead will share with you a pretty picture and a page from a book I received for my birthday, "Everything I Know, I Learned Over Tea", by Emilie Barnes. Especially since we just spent a few days in remembrance of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, I thought these words were timely.

"Teacups are fragile...and resilient"

"I learned something wonderful about teacups while watching a program on archaeology - ceramic objects may be breakable, but they are also amazingly resistant to weathering and corrosion and age. Much of what we know about ancient civilizations we have learned from bits of pottery they left behind. China dishes recovered from shipwrecks are often good as new, long after the ship itself has dissolved in the saltwater.

In other words, porcelain is fragile, but it's also remarkably durable.

Like life.

Like us.

Humans are beautiful and breakable, like china cups...yet we are also strong and resilient. And unlike my cups, humans can heal and grow and move beyond disaster. We can reach out to one another in courage and comfort.

So what will I do if or when disaster strikes?

I'll do what other resilient humans do - I'll try to help someone and accept help if I need it.

And then, somehow, I'll have another cup of tea."

Running to the kitchen for a cup of tea while in crisis may seem silly, but I was thinking about the movie of the Diary of Anne Frank. As they huddled together in tiny quarters, hiding in isolation with little to eat, they still had hope for a moment in their fearful existence; they escaped to a serene place as their hands surrounded a warm cup, and as they quietly and slowly sipped. Though I have never experienced anything remotely as horrible as that terrible time, I have often found that sitting with a cup of tea in times of distress brought a sense of peace, which is truly a luxury we cannot afford to live without.

I'm so glad you came by for a visit...my tea cottage is always open, and you are always welcome. If you aren't a tea lover, then no matter what your beverage is, I hope Emilie's words have touched you.

God bless you and God bless America. Please join me in praying for those in our blogging community that need physical healing, and please continue to pray for our nation. There are changes coming that we need to be aware of...as my sister says, this is not a time to be a ostrich, with out heads buried in the sand...it won't go away just because we refuse to see it.

Please remember our troops...they desperately need our prayers as they move forward in the face of danger every single day, sacrificing the comforts of home to protect freedom. And their families, who wait for their loved one to come through the door once again.

Mary