Poem: 5 Minutes of Tea Time
Tea Time
The sky is a solid shade of Baby Blue, dotted with cotton ball clouds.
The crickets, in their disharmonious orchestra, play a symphony that only a deaf person could love.
A black and yellow butterfly appears suddenly from beneath a bush and circles me before leaving to perch on a nearby flower. Is it a guardian angel?
A bee darts from flower to flower, desperately searching for that last remaining pollen to take back to the the hive.
A green lizard dashes across the driveway, as if in a mad race to the finish line....a race against Usain Bolt, perhaps?
It pauses, nods its head as if to acknowledge me, and carries on.
As I write this I notice something out of the corner of my eye. I look up.
A 4-foot long black garden snake slithers across my path, the sun's rays bouncing off its back, as it made its way to the hole at the bottom of the nearby Chinese bush.
The wind gently tickles the blades of lemongrass grass that shimmer with the morning dew.
They dance back and forth as if in a dance of love, a slow rhythmic waltz perhaps.
Pine cones dot the tall, sturdy trees like a crazy game of connect the dots. The trees' branches reach toward the sky, stretching upward in a desperate attempt to touch the Heavens.
I sip on a cup of homemade moringa, burdock root and fennel tea. I can almost feel it coursing through my veins delivering healing nutrients.
That was 5 minutes.
It's amazing what we see when we take time to notice.
Nature is healing.
Here comes a mosquito. (It's the State Bird of Florida.)
Have you seen the size of those things?
Time to go inside!
Florida's State Bird
© 2016 Gina Welds Hulse
Comments
Oh, yes. Sunsets and sunrises are amazing. At the ranch, there are some of the most breathtaking ones. There is no other surface interference and the horizon reaches all the way around 360 degrees. I fully appreciate what you say about watching the moon set while the sun rises - and vice versa! Also, down there, the dark velvet night sky is so deep but near one could almost touch the Milky Way. When there, we just sit out after dark and bask in it.
Your son sounds like a great person! He would love walking around down there. There are fossils all around. The land lies in what was the middle of that ancient shallow sea that once covered the continent, so fossils abound.
Yes, children who haven't yet been jaded are amazing in their clear-headed perspective of the world around them. I like Alan Watts' idea in his "Wisdom of Insecurity". He stresses the fact that life, by its nature IS insecure. If it were secure, it would be static and non-life. Then he goes on to show that once that is recognized and accepted, we can enjoy it as it is and knowing we can make it either our problem or our freedom.
I agree that humans most often make problems where there are none! And even where they do exist the passage of time usually brings solutions if one is open to them.
- AUTHOR
I think that is why I enjoy watching the sunrise, Nellieanna....just to see the beautiful progression of darkness into light, the grays of pre-dawn into the beautiful colors in the sky as the sun rises over the horizon. My favorite is the morning after a full moon...watching the moon set in the west as the sun rises in the east. Beautiful!
My youngest son loves to walk by rivers to see fossils. He notices things that even I don't notice...but he also loves to watch nature, past and present, and sometimes the questions he asks astound me. Such as brilliant kid.
I worked with a group of kids yesterday in a sculpture workshop. It was so peaceful. They had not a care in the world. They were just concerned with working on their project, coming up with ideas to make it interesting, having fun. No stress. I was thinking as I watched them...we really just need to think with the minds of children sometimes. As adults we make so many of our "problems" bigger than they are. You are right when you say "being in the moment is the best way to deal with the concerns we may think we 'should be' thinking about before they happen!" I think we sometimes make problems out of things that really are not problems.
I adore getting caught up in noticing the marvelous progression of nature and life going on all around. There is so much LIFE and all its many kaleidoscopic patterns right 'here'. So many more things than we can even observe, but what a joy to take notice of them! There are remnants of the past as well - in fossils and paths of past streams. So much to learn and enjoy!
Yes, there are the less beautiful elements such as mosquitos, but we need to be aware of those in order to be able to deal with them. (They don't bother me, though! whoo-hoo!)
You describe it well as being in the moment. If not here, where and if not now, when?
Actually, being in the moment is the best way to deal with the concerns we may think we 'should be' thinking about before they happen! But if we want to know the right reply to someone, we need but respond to it in its moment, being fully aware of its moment. In order to be able to do that one needs to be aware of and accustomed to living in the present moments rather than using them to try to 'be' elsewhere.
True, Gina. That is the real solution to all our worries and sickness. Spend a few minutes in admiring and listening to nature. Most of our tensions get evaporated and we experience true bliss and happiness.
- AUTHOR
Isn't that the truth, Venkatachari. We miss so much when we get caught up in the material. If 5 minutes can bring that kind of peace, imagine what 30 minutes or more just being in nature can do for us.....just really opening our eyes to the beauty that surrounds us...the simple things such as the flapping of the butterfly's wings....sublime.
Wow! Wonderful, Gina. It is a very small everyday resume that most of us miss watching due to our overindulgence in material things ignoring the nature's existence around us.
You have presented the juice of it during that 5-minute sipping of the tea. I appreciate your muse. Blessings.
- AUTHOR
Awww! Thank you for those sweet words, Manatita. So good to see you!
It's amazing how much is happening all around us if we just pause and be present in the moment. We miss so much because we get caught up worrying about the future or living in the past, missing out on the beauty around us.
I could not resist joking about the mosquito at the end. They're enormous here.
Extremely beautiful! You have a soothing style that reminds me of myself. I know a few more poets here like that. Perhaps you are the closest. There is a soothing sweetness and an endowment of Spirituality; a wisdom and sublimity that I feel in your poems. So magical! So healing to the Soul!
May our Beloved continue to fill your Heart with His life-energy and your Soul with His supernal Love.
P.S Your poem shows an awareness of what's happening around you, with a brilliant stroke of light humour at the end. Let us sing His glories. Praise be!
8