Tea and Sympathy

I suppose the only thing tea related about this post is the  maple tea in the delicate, vintage rose pedestal cup that I am drinking.  I have browsed blogs this evening trying to lift my spirits and managed only to make myself more homesick.

Homesick for what?

Oddly, I am homesick for somewhere I have never been but my imagination knows in detail.  A place where the leaves change color in the autumn, where the snow falls gently all winter long…where the narcissus bloom in the spring sending their sweet scent flying over fields and stream…and where long, lazy summer days last and last.

I know the house…every inch of it and I have walked through  it so many times in my mind that I don’t work out the details anymore.  I know the barn, the loft with the purring cats, the sound of the cow and the horse that are there. I know the orchards, the fields and meadows and the small brook that runs through the woods at the back of the property.

When I was little I used to think that someday I would just disappear into another dimension and end up in that place for real.  When I read the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time I was determined to find the wardrobe that would transport me to that place.

I am much different in that place. I am not hurried or stressed but always have time to make heart shaped pancakes and gaze at the sunset while I sip tea in the quiet.

The thing is, the things that are special to me there are things that I would like to do here..if I only had (time/money/ability).   The thing is I could make that place here and now.

I could take the time to site on my porch and gaze at the sunset.  I could take the time to make heart shaped pancakes (I used to).  I could give up something not so important to have the money for something more important…and I could learn to do what I don’t know how to do.

So much of our lives revolve around what we will do when our circumstances are perfect that we forget to what we have now.  We read books like the Mitford series (my favorite!) and wish that our lives were that simple and then we go and buy something on credit and add to the debt we are carrying.

We say that we want to be at peace, to have the neighborly friendliness that this  country used to have..but we can’t get through an election without cutting down the candidate that we are not voting for and making sarcastic comments.  We want others to think the best of us and yet when they make a “foot in the mouth ” statement we pounce on it like a kitten on a cricket.  God forbid if our neighbor does something we dislike.

The truth is that whether we are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, or Athiest it is still true that the only way to change the world is to change ourselves and invite others to do the same.  Whether it is sweet tea in a Bubba glass, or maple tea in a vintage cup we need to learn to let it go.

That’s all.  Sorry.  Just rambling.  I want to live in Mayberry RFD, or Mitford, or where ever…the only way I can do that is to do my best to be the type of person who would live there now.

Have a cup of tea and imagine how you can change your world right where you are.

image:maryeaudet