I love tea.
Have, since I was a little bean and my grandmother would swap my bottle for a mug of weak rooibos with no milk and a teensy bit of sugar (I still drink it just like that, 30 years later!)
I am neurotic about my tea. It has to be just right: water hot enough to soothe my throat but not scald the skin off my lips, dip the teabag 1, 2, 3 times and stir in one teaspoon of brown sugar. If it’s too bitter, or if it’s left to cool too much, I won’t drink it. I have been known to get very upset at being served a bad cuppa tea.
During the last year or so, I’ve developed a taste for green tea.
Every morning, before I leave home, I make myself a mug (eco-travel mug, of course) and by the time I get to my office, it’s just the right temperature to enjoy. It has all sorts of health benefits, but my favourite is how naturally calming it is. It genuinely makes me happy, especially when the mornings are a bit colder and my poor, anaemic fingers are frozen stiff.
I saw a cute picture recently of a mug of tea wearing a huge, toothy grin that called itself ‘positivi-tea’. I chuckled, and thought it was especially true of my morning green tea: if I don’t have my cuppa green goodness, I find it a little tougher than usual to settle down and get focused for the day’s tasks.
It got me thinking about what kind of cuppa I am.
Am I a cuppa positivi-tea? You know, the one that makes you go “aaaaahhhh” as the warmth slides down your throat? The one that resets your frown and dissolves your bad mood? Or, am I negativi-tea? The cuppa that’s cold and yucky, leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes me pull a face because it’s a travesty against tea leaves?
Here at SEEHOA, my colleagues and I have had a few interesting conversations about changing the narrative when we communicate. Telling the GOOD stories. Taking a moment to celebrate the wins. Engaging meaningfully with those who champion Simbithi and carry the dragonfly close to their hearts. All over many, many cups of positivi-tea.
As we shiver our timbers into Winter, let’s resolve to be good cuppas.
Let’s make each other happy, warm and fuzzy.
Don’t be negativi-tea…that’s yucky!
