T E A

Tea helps our head and heart.
Tea medicates most every part.
Tea rejuvenates the very old.
Tea warms the hands of those who're cold.

J. Jonkers

Although I don't recall where I first found this picture, it is one of my favorites because it tells a story and elicits an emotional response from the viewer. This could be your Grandma, or mine. . .and nothing sounds nicer than sipping a cup of tea with Grandmother!

Hot Tea at Teakettle Junction

January is National Hot Tea Month, and of course a post in its honor is in order. Named thus by the Tea Association of the USA, its purpose is to promote the value of a hot cup of tea. The claimed health benefits of tea are many, ranging from an increased immune response to the reduction of heart disease and cancer. Thus, I am sipping on a hot cup of Snow Sprout tea as I write. To research the benefits of this herb, check out the Tea Association website.

Seeking to draw attention to this designated month, my mind skipped through a variety of things I could write about. Teapots, teacups, gawan porcelain bowls, and three-tiered trays all came to mind. But finding the obscure or unusual to celebrate this cozy past-time seemed important.

I decided to share with readers about a very interesting and out-of-the-way place in Death Valley, California. Located twenty miles from Ubehebe Crater, eighteen miles from Hunter Mountain, and six miles from Racetrack on a remote and rugged road is a junction named Teakettle. A hundred years ago, miners in search of wealth and adventure would pass this way and mark the junction by placing a teakettle in its spot. First one, then more teakettles have been added until it's become quite famous as a place to leave one's mark by adding a teakettle of one's own to the stash. Visitors leave a teakettle, signed and dated for others to see at this remote junction. It appears that teakettles serve a serious place in American history, even in remote desert places! If you decide to drive there and add a teakettle of your own, be sure to take a spare tire or two with you. The road is very rough and scattered with sharp and jagged rocks! A Death Valley mule might be a better, albeit slower mode of transportation!

A visit to this historic spot allows the imagination to travel back in time, wondering who passed this way before and what type of delicious hot tea they served around a campfire and with whom it was shared.

Happy National Hot Tea Month!

Lifting the Doldrums

It's January.  Mental health professionals report that depression and anxiety are often experienced during the time period right after Christmas.  There are many professional solutions to this problem, and they are excellent. Sometimes common sense has solutions as well. Here's a folk-list of ways to cope with winter doldrums.

1. Experience light! Because some days the sun doesn't shine, other ways must be found to get the full-spectrum light that the body requires. Check out the light bulb section at a nearby store and look for bulbs that are advertised as "full spectrum light" bulbs. Replace the ordinary bulbs in your light fixtures with the full spectrum bulbs and enjoy a dose of sunshine in your home! They are available in both florescent and incandescent bulbs. You can also find grow lights in garden centers that offer bright "full spectrum" light. Sitting under a "full spectrum" light for 20 - 30 minutes as soon as you wake up in the morning will help start your day off right. It's a real mood lifter, as it stimulates hormones that promote happiness.

2. Eat nuts! Nuts and seeds contain Omega-3's, an essential nutrient for healthy and happy brain function. A handful of walnuts each day will help combat the winter blues. Additionally, freshly ground flax seed daily supplies a high dose of Omega-3's. A small coffee grinder does a great job of grinding them. Be aware that if not ground, these seeds may benefit the colon, but the Omega-3's will stay bound up inside the hard shell, therefore not giving you brain benefit.

3. Exercise! A daily walk does wonders for the spirit. Bundle up during your favorite time of day. Walking when during the peek of the day when the sun is shining gives double benefit, but don't discount the soothing effects of a "nighttime" walk. Walking by moonlight (in a safe neighborhood) is relaxing and a wonderful mood lifter.

4. Eat right! Resolve to eat plenty of whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. These are the core ingredients of a healthy lifestyle. Use the other foods to garnish and enhance, but not as the main ingredient in the foods you eat. Not only will eating this way life your mood, but it will make you feel lighter and brighter too.

5. Think of others! Getting your mind off yourself does wonders for mood enhancement. Deliberately do something nice for someone else every day. Visit a shut-in neighbor, offer to babysit for a young mother for an hour or two, or pitch in to help a friend with an overwhelming project. By being of service to someone else, you'll find that your mind is taken off yourself and your blue's.

6. Listen to music! Music is a great mood enhancer, especially certain types of music. Classical music has been shown to enhance mood because of it's rhythms, patterns, and cadences. Spend some time with Mozart, Bach, Brahms, or Beethoven each day.

7. Sip a cup of tea! Tea relaxes the muscles in the body that cause tension. And it signals to your body that it's time to kick back for a moment and enjoy being in the "now".  Forget the troubles of the past and the worries of the future. Concentrate on "being" in the moment and enjoying the life you've been given. 

It seems there really is a reason why January has been selected as National Hot Tea Month!

Renewal

Have you noticed how each month of the year has a different focus?  Although it is frequently established by advertising and commercialism, there is some truth to the fact that we focus on different things each month of the year.  January is the month for setting new goals and organizing our lives and homes.  It's also the month that department stores offer their best sales on plastic storage containers, organizing units for closets and kitchens, and tools for keeping track of stuff.  Label makers, Rubbermaid, and under the bed storage units are in easy view on store shelves.  Even television programs bring this theme into focus.  Home and Garden Television is featuring many programs on de-cluttering, hoarding vs. un-hoarding, and quick organization tips.  Additionally, health clubs, weight loss centers, and exercise equipment vendors are doing their part in helping focus on an individuals health and wellness.  But with all the focus on freshening up the inside of a home or the appearance of an individual, commericalism does not entice many to work on the heart.  Fortunately, supportive friends and acquaintances do their part in bringing this into view.  I've noticed that many of my friend, both in cyberspace and in my community offer helpful support in bringing what's important into focus.  Renewed emphasis on journaling, prayer notebooks, and outlines for establishing priorities are shared by friends who care and share.  They remind me that the external is simply a reflection of what the individual has nurtured and inculcated inside their heart and mind.    As I strive to seek that which is really important, I am encouraged by a quote of Alexandra Stoddard which helps me to recognize that the outside is simply a reflection of my heart.  She writes that "our true home is inside each of us.  Our houses are the outward expression of something we have already achieved."  Inside out, a reflection of our heart.

Healing the World

The practice of forgiveness is our most 

important contribution

to the healing of the world.

  Marianne Williamson

Natalie & Baby Blue

Teachers know that the period between Christmas vacation and Spring Break can be long and arduous for both student and teacher.  Cold weather, gray skies, and a lengthy stretch of school after the excitement of Thanksgiving and Christmas can create some weary students.  So, when a teacher gives a creative assignment during this period, it really does help the days pass by more swiftly.  Catching the attention of students is both challenging and rewarding.  With that in mind, let me share with you about a recent experience that brought all this back into focus for me again.

Last week a friend from high school, Tari, came by to visit.  Her niece, Natalie, came with her.  Natalie is a senior at Tari's and my alma mater.  This creates a point of interest for us, as we like to reminisce about days gone by, what our friends are doing now, and of the adventures we had.  I'm afraid Natalie gets lots of advice from us, but she takes is very well.  When Natalie arrived she was holding a baby carrier.  I thought "that's unusual, she must be babysitting".  But it didn't take long to realize that something else was going on.  Natalie had a gender specific computerized doll in her baby carrier.  I remembered my own teaching days and instantly realized that the flour sack or egg babies that my students tended for their Consumer and Family Science projects were very low tech compared to the very realistic props used today!  I also felt very 'dated' in comparison!  The purpose of the 'infant simulator' is to help the student realize the care that a newborn requires.  Each doll is about the size and weight of a newborn.  They are programmed to cry, coo, and burp on a schedule that the teacher programs into them.  They cry audibly and loudly when they need a diaper change, food, rocking, or burping.  Care is given by feeding them with a baby bottle that has a special sensor in it that records its use.  The doll also responds to rocking, burping, and a diaper change by specific prompts that its internal computer recognizes.  Natalie had a special wristband that the teacher put on her (and that she could not take off) that recorded things she did and how quickly she responded.  I suppose this factor was added so that mother or grandma couldn't 'babysit' for her, thus giving her full responsibility for the baby doll.   Natalie used great care to keep the doll's head stabilized and to handle it gently, as sensors would record baby abuse.  Every time Natalie changed a diaper or fed the baby doll, her journal came out and she recorded every task with care.  Students are graded according to their actions and tender loving care.  The computer makes it impossible to cheat.

I'm sure Natalie will receive an A+ on this project.  She was diligent in meeting the needs of this demanding little bundle!  I think she'll agree that she found 100% infant care no easy task.  She said the looks she received from those nearby who thought her baby was real were sometimes a bit judgmental or curious.  One mother offered to trade her the computerized doll for her real baby (I'm sure she was simply making a point).  With a baby doll programmed to exist on the same sleep and wake schedule as a regular newborn, I suspect that deep sleep and diligent homework in other school subjects was not quite as usual.  And I suspect that Natalie, as did the rest of her class, decided that the glamorous aspects of being a young parent were best delayed until maturity, readiness, and the adventures of youth were well past.  It really was fun sharing an evening of Natalie's 'project infant simulator' with her! 

Great job, Natalie.  I know you will make a terrific mother someday. . .when you are ready.