Honey For Your Heart
Happiness One Cup At A Time
I was making my third, ten cup pot of coffee, and I suddenly wondered how much of this coffee were my housemates drinking and how much was I drinking? I went and asked them both and was horrified to hear the same answer twice, “I don’t drink coffee.” I was making 30 cups of coffee a day and drinking it all myself!?
I decided to quit then and there. Not a good plan my friends. Caffeine is a powerful stimulant and our bodies get addicted to it.
As it turns out there’s an officially recognized ‘disorder’ called caffeine withdrawal. According to a Johns Hopkins study that reviewed over 170 years of caffeine withdrawal research, as little as one standard cup of coffee a day can produce caffeine addiction followed by severe withdrawal headaches, nausea, fever and body aches. (r/decaf)
Okay, I won’t subject you to my story of massive headaches and exhaustion and brain fog. I’ll just say it all happened and I began a decades long “managing my caffeine addiction”. I was down to two cups a day and looking towards just one cup in the morning when I got sick last week.
There I was in bed with a fever, brutal headache and body aches for two days, sleeping almost around the clock and for the next three days drinking tea and broth and when I began feeling better - that’s when it occurred to me! - I had just suffered through the initial caffeine withdrawal phase while sick and could likely take a new path forward!
This is one of those silver linings moments, or a “bless the broken path that lead to now and new choices”.
I’ve been growing spearmint, lemon balm, anise hyssop, bee balm and tulsi this year and anticipating drinking tea from my own tea garden. I have long had a desire to be an herbalist and make and grow my own teas and tinctures. It’s all very dreamlike and vague however as I am not terribly good with plants. I can kill plants that I’ve been assured are completely fool proof and easy to grow. Sigh.
This year both the bee balm and lemon balm came back vigorously from last year and gave me renewed optimism. I have also found that mint actually lives up to it’s name of being an easy grower. Yes indeed, mint will take over! I planted spearmint in a container this year and I’m thinking of planting other mints in containers next year. There are so many varieties!
Peppermint, pineapple mint, chocolate mint, apple mint, American wild mint, Cuban mint, margarita mint… not only do they all smell fantastic but bees love mint as well. Win win win.
So, with great anticipation last week I walked out to the garden and picked a spearmint leaf, a lemon balm leaf, a hyssop leaf and a bee balm leaf, crushed them a bit to release their full flavor, dropped them into a cup from my sister (it’s green with a picture of a comfy armchair and a book) and poured hot water over the leaves. I was absurdly happy taking my first sip. I actually chuckled with delight.
Isn’t it funny how we can sometimes find ourselves actually doing what you might think is simply a “turn of phrase”? I was chuckling with delight!
This morning I am going to pick a spearmint leaf, a sage leaf and an anise hyssop leaf. I’m smiling just thinking about it. It feels so earthy, so grounding, so self empowering.
What have you got growing in your yard or garden or on your windowsill that you can pick for a moment of happiness in a cup? I’d love to hear if you chuckle with delight.
Jennifer
Lovely piece. Thank you.