By Cat Wilson
I take wisdom from a cup of tea for how to live my life. Mix the most delicious combination of ingredients with the perfect cup, decorate in colors and a message I want to absorb, and fill the cup with fresh, filtered water just off a boil. Wait patiently for perfection as it steeps for two to five, or five to ten minutes, depending on the blend and desired strength.
What’s in your blend? If I am developing calm, I could be a mix of chamomile, lavender, and mint. Perhaps I’m feeling spicy – grab a pinch of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, grate a knob of ginger root, dash the pepper, splash in warm milk, and sweeten me with a dollop of honey. That’s the chai of a spicy life! For focus, I might choose a nice green that doesn’t need anything extra at all.
Just like tea, our lives are mixes of ingredients that combine into a kind of symphony. And just like tea, there are infinite choices for every kind of day, every flavor of life, and every quirky personality. There are prepackaged, individually wrapped bags, and there are those who have whole cupboards full of different herbs and spices they select and brew together in a pot.
Your life’s tea might consist of the art on the walls in your home, the music you choose to listen to, the books you read, the wisdom you heed, your spiritual path, or the company you keep. Maybe you need a long steeping of meditation in the morning to be ready for a day, or maybe your daily bicycle commute gives you the zen of melded flavors that comes through contemplation.
I love trying new teas, alongside my favorite standbys. There’s also the occasional kind that gets pushed to the back and forgotten about. Sometimes I keep a tea until its too stale to really be enjoyed, but maybe it can still be composted into new life. Like our literal tea stash, life’s tea stash also needs to be cleaned out sometimes.
Am I drinking an old stale tea that I don’t really enjoy? Am I hanging onto beliefs, possessions, or relationships that no longer serve me?
Sometimes a friend recommends a brand or style I haven’t had before, or sometimes I stop into a tea shop while traveling and get an excellent recommendation from whoever is working there. With a little help, we might find flavors that we love but would never have tried on our own. And so it is with our lives.
Are you looking for new tastes in your life? Need help figuring out what to keep in your stash and what to toss out? At Apositiva, we work with you to design life, choosing the ingredients that make well balanced blends, bringing you the right mix of life’s many joys and treasures.
Contact me, Cat Wilson, life designer at Apositiva, to learn how we can work together on creating positive change towards your best, most fulfilling life. Better yet, come and visit me in Portland, and we’ll drink some tea.