A Cup of Tea

I used to drink a cup of black tea with sugar and half and half pretty much every morning. Like many coffee drinkers, it was part of my morning ritual—the smell, taste and process of making my tea were all comforting in a way. When I started the elimination diet, I cut out sugar, dairy and caffeine, so that was it for my morning tea. I tried herbal teas, but they just didn’t do the same thing, plus it’s “summer” so the hot beverage wasn’t quite so important. There was so much adjustment at first that I didn’t pay much attention to the tea aspect of things.

Eventually, as things got more settled and re-calibrated, I realized that I did miss my tea and set out to find some sort of suitable substitute. After trying a variety of alternative sweeteners and dairy substitutes, as well as green tea, black tea and decaffeinated black tea, I think I am accepting the fact that my cup of tea might be a thing of the past. This final conclusion happened just this morning right about the time I was opening up my laptop. I made a cup of assam (my favorite black tea) and used a dollop of heavy whipping cream (my naturopath said though she doesn’t do dairy, she does this one thing in her tea in the morning and something about how since it’s pretty much all fat, it’s not so bad) and some honey (because the thing I can’t do, I think, is go back to having refined sugar every morning).

And it’s just not the same. It might be the sugar, but I actually think my taste for the tea has changed. I couldn’t even drink the whole thing. So once again, I am faced with the difference between reality and my idea of reality or how I think it should be or something like that. Rather than continuing to remember how my tea used to be, it’s time to refer to my more current experience. So as in the last post, I am thinking about how things change. Things change and it is my job to let them change—neither pushing nor resisting.

I am reminded of another thing Sonia said in that workshop. Sutra 2.1 (tapah svadhyaya ishvarapranidhanani kriyayogah) is often interpreted as something like yoga is practiced through effort, self-study and surrender. Sonia’s teacher, Desikachar, says instead, “act, observe, be open.” I have found this so helpful. The be open part asks us to allow the results of what we do to be what they are. Simple and straightforward instructions for life. I guess I am done longing for my old experience with tea.