Writing blogs takes a lot of research. You read, in a matter of moments, what it has often taken me days to put together. I read alot of news reports, websites, blogs, library books…you name it.

The other night I was infusing MYSELF in a hot bath with a LUSH bubble bar. I was lying there reading an old Alexandra Stoddard book from my personal library, Living a Beautiful Life.

It is the book that opened my eyes to the need for beauty and ritual in our lives. Not just to be doing something but because those things feed our spirits, and help us to remember who we are deep inside.

I have been going through a most difficult time. It has lasted far to long, and there is no end in sight. The little rituals that I made a habit of years ago are the things that glue my sanity together when it feels shattered. Having my coffee in a special cup..retreating to my hot bubble bath…spending a quiet time with my Bible….all of these things are habits that energize me in ways that I can’t explain.

One thing that I have stopped doing is sitting with a cup of tea and just looking out the window for ten minutes in the afternoon. I realized I miss that. It is something between a nap and a mental vacation!

I have a fireplace in my bedroom. It is a hologram one but it is a fireplace none-the-less. This afternoon I am going to ask my sons to carry a comfortable chair upstairs and put it by the fireplace. I am going to make a note to take a break everyday, with some tea and a cookie or muffin and I am going to sit there in quiet and just revive myself.

So, what is it that you do to revive yourself? What is the ritual that is the glue that holds you together? And if you don’t have one, what will you do in the future?
What part of confidante has that poor teapot played ever since the kindly
plant was introduced among us. Why myriads of women have cried over it, to
be sure! What sickbeds it has smoked by! What fevered lips have received
refreshment from it! Nature meant very kindly by women when she made the
tea plant; and with a little thought, what a series of pictures and groups
the fancy may conjure up and assemble round the the teapot and cup.
-William Makepeace Thakery

Post from: Kettle and Cup