Doing Thyme
Every day, after we have had our celery juice, half-caff. coffee and breakfast, I make a pot of thyme and ginger tea.
Thyme has so many medicinal benefits:
Lowers blood pressure.
Boosts mood (the carvacrol in it.)
Natural sore throat and cough remedy.
Packed with Vitamin C and A.
Oh, and the Thymol in it fights viruses.
Ginger is also great right now.
I offered some to Pavlov, the Russian guy who came and fixed our fridge last week, and he said "I just spoke to my father in Russia and he says that the radio is saying to eat ginger three times a day against the virus!" That was serendipitous. I picked the right way to show my thanks and got the inspiring info. in exchange.
Also, ginger makes the tea taste great.
Here's how I do it:
Wash ginger well and then cut it into 2 inch sized chunks. I peel it. You don't have to. I put in about 4-6 inches of ginger. More when I have it.
Add several sprigs of rinsed fresh thyme. I add about 5-7.
Add honey.
Cover with enough boiling water to fill the number of mugs you will be using and let steep for 10-15 minutes.
Pour in mug(s) and add a squeeze of lemon, if you have it.
You can keep adding hot water to the pot all day, using that same batch of thyme and ginger. Add more thyme and ginger the next day and then replace the day after.
I heard someone in England saying that sipping on warm liquids helps to keep the virus at bay. It can't survive in heat. The symptoms sometimes start with a sore throat. Makes sense to me to drink warm liquids rather than cold, as she was recommending. Plus, warm tea is simply soothing. My 19 year old loves this tea. It's surprisingly good.
Doing Time
We are all doing time, making the choices of what to do with our time, based on our circumstances. What is helping me (and which I realize has little to no bearing on many others' situations, like essential workers or parents of youngsters) is to truly take my time. I am deciding to choose what to do with my time based not just on duty, but on wonder and devotion. I have to take.my.time. I wander into what is most needed by sometimes following my intuition and daydreams instead of the list.
When I am feeling grief or anger over what is going on out there, this is hard. My heart races, I don't sleep, I feel the heaviness we all feel in our chests.
I saw the cherry blossoms bursting forth into their abundant peak a few days ago and rather than feel awed, I felt sadness. The next day, those seemingly vibrant petals would already start to fall. It was a reminder of how transient life is, how illusory are the buds' (our) attachments to their branch.
But then, when the petals did finish raining down, in a dramatic wind today, I saw that they'd been replaced by a multitude of fresh green leaves. And the fallen petals have formed a gorgeous soft carpet in our driveway. Nature was doing what it does and was simply moving on to its next moment.
I am not going to deny what is happening. Today, I have been feeling grief for those in India, and the family members of friends who have gotten sick, and I can't imagine ever not railing at Trump. But I do want to avoid getting lost in the future by doing now slowly - watching the shoots come up in our square foot garden, savoring time with my loved ones (even just via the phone), feeling all of us in this together, drinking my next cup of tea.
How are you doing time? If you have any time tips, practical or spiritual, please share.
Love,
Madeline
