whom would it be?

Think about it for a moment. Whom would you most like to sit down with for an uninterrupted hour or two?

Imagine the setting. Is it a sun-room with upholstered wicker chairs and daisies in a vase? A front-porch swing with a painted railing to put up your feet? Or maybe you would set the tea table up next to a roaring fire in a mahogany-paneled study with leather wing-backs and a sleeping cat.

Now, close your eyes and see yourself in that setting. Who sits with you? Maybe it’s someone you’ve never met before, like an author of a favorite book; yet you’re at ease because you somehow know they’ll be a comfort to you. What would you want to talk about? What questions would you want to ask?

Myself, I think I might choose Anne Morrow Lindbergh or the wife of one of my favorite guitar musicians for the sun-room (“Is he as deep in real life? What’s it like to be married to one who makes us swoon? Mind if I do for a moment?”). For the front-porch swing, I want to track down my junior-high kindred spirit who married the Italian filmmaker. And I think if I could, I would invite the old boyfriend to the study and leave the door open. (“I know we weren’t meant to be, but how are you, really?).

How is it that so much of life can go by without heart-to-heart talks: the ones that truly comfort, linger, and connect us?

The college student of interpersonal communication in me knows some of the heady answer. I wrote papers on the different levels of intimacy and why they become more threatening as we progress deeper through them. I understand as an adult what I didn’t as a teenager; most of us need to face daily life with the balance these kinds of conversations tend to throw out-of-whack.

But I also wonder if maybe we’re just painfully out of practice in the art of conversation. Guarded because of past risks that didn’t go so well. And just too busy to slow down and receive nurture from one another. I think I imagine a day when there will be time; where my own graying Ya-Ya sisterhood and I will treasure each other and make the effort because we know better…

But for now, I prepare pots of tea and pour them out for others. It’s my small way of making room for people to connect with one another. There’s something about the preparation of tea that communicates to the recipient how you value them. Over and over I see the affect this has on tea drinkers. The care lingers, comforts, and connects.

What are you waiting for? Who would you like to invite for tea before the month’s end? Don’t hesitate! Let Tea Party Girl help you. Find the information you need in my categories. Feel free to email me or ask questions in the comments. Do it today!

As for me, carrot cake and cappuccino cream rooibos tea with my sons await.