Some early morning musings on the expansion and contraction inherent to human life, in audio format with transcription included. There’s also a recipe for a warm tea to make while you listen. I hope you’ll take your tea, find a comfortable place to sit and enjoy a quiet moment for yourself today. If you prefer to read the transcript over listening to the audio, keep scrolling, I’ve included the transcript at the end.
(I’ve also included a round up of the other pieces I wrote this month, scroll down past the transcript for the links to some more poetry!)
Tulsi Rose Latte
Tulsi is sometimes called Holy Basil - it’s a light aromatic herb that is very uplifting. I like the addition of rose both for the sweet floral taste as well as the heart support. Roses are generally a nutritive heart tonic, helpful for people carrying a great deal of stress or grief.
Also, this tea would be more accurately called a tisane or herbal infusion, because there is no actual tea in it. Tea has become a catch all word for steeped drinks but the purist in me wants you to know that historically, tea refers to beverages made from the Camellia sinensis plant (the tea plant).
Ingredients: - 1 Tulsi tea bag (or 2 tbs loose Tulsi) - 2 tbs dried rose petals - 1 cup hot water - 1/4 cup milk of choice Brewing the Tea: 1. Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. 2. Place the Tulsi tea and rose petals in a teapot or mug. 3. Pour the hot water over the tea 4. Let the tea steep for about 5-7 minutes to allow the flavors to infuse fully. 2. Foaming the Milk: 1. While the tea is steeping, heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat until it's hot but not boiling. 2. Once the milk is heated, you have a couple of options for foaming: - Option 1: Frother: Use a milk frother to froth the milk until it's creamy. - Option 2: Mason Jar Method: Pour the hot milk into a mason jar, ensuring it's no more than halfway full. Seal the jar tightly and shake vigorously for about 30 seconds until the milk becomes frothy. 3. Making the Latte: Once the tea has finished steeping, remove the tea bags or strain out the rose buds. Pour the brewed tea into a mug, filling it about ¾ full. Slowly pour the frothed milk over the brewed tea, holding back the foam with a spoon to layer the foam on top. Spoon any remaining foam on top of the latte. Your Tulsi Rose Tea Latte is now ready to enjoy! Adjust the flavor by adding your preferred sweetener if desired. Honey goes really well with Tulsi - I like to use a ginger spiced honey for a little extra goodness.
Tea Talk Transcript: Around six in the morning, right now, I'm sitting at my writing desk. I've been working on some poetry pieces, and some vignettes of living for Ordinary Magic. And I looked up from my computer, my half finished poem, and at my desk right now, I've got it next to the window, facing the river that I live next to. And there are three deer standing in the river. Kind of backlit by the sun that's just coming up over the horizon. If I had a wonderful camera, it would be a beautiful picture. But it's just for me, it's just an image that exists for me these three deer standing in the river. With the sun coming up, the sky is just at palest, palest yellow mixed with blue. And then gray gray clouds almost the color of rain clouds but not quite. The deer are moving over to the bank now climbing onto the bank of the river. Moving over the grass and the rocks, I suppose they're probably looking for things to eat. They always seem so serene deer, even when you come across a deer and you're startled and the deer is startled, and you look at each other and you're not quite sure what to do….Even then there's something about the way they move that is so serene, and
gentle. And yet, you know, you know enough of their power and their strength to to just stay out of out of their path.
I would like to be able to move through the world like a deer some days with that, that element of quick grace. The sure footed movement through life, because sometimes, sometimes it feels like I don't know where I'm going, or what I'm doing. And I sure could use that ability to just move deliberately and gracefully. I feel that way sometimes when I'm writing a poem, actually, I just know where the words need to go, where they need to land to carry forward the message that I want to share. Sometimes it's not even what I want to share. Sometimes it's something that is moving through me I guess and needs to be shared. And my words are sure and deliberate and graceful. Like a deer. And sometimes they're not.
I was thinking about how our hearts are constantly moving between contraction and expansion essentially. Essentially hardening and softening and hardening and softening, contraction and expansion. And that's kind of what our life does, we have cycles of contraction and expansion, contraction and expansion, hard times, soft times, and we move through them. And I suppose one of the things we have to learn to do in this this human life is to move with grace through the contractions and the expansions through the hard and the soft, because we will encounter both through our entire lives. And perhaps that's one of the only sure things we know our life will hold is this constant movement between contraction and expansion. And getting through it, it's just learning to accept that it happens and it changes and to just stand up tall like deer and move through it deliberately. I suppose that is that is one of the tasks of being alive.
The deer have moved into the bushes now I can't see them anymore, but I'm still thinking about them.
There, I've given you a small window in what it's like to be in my writing process. Often when I sit down to write something, I end up writing something else just sparked by something I've observed or felt or heard. And it's funny, you know, there are some writers who have said they put their writing desk against the wall their back to the window, so they don't get distracted and they don't get pulled off course. But some of my best work, I feel and you know, it's funny to to judge your own work sometimes, but some of my best work comes from being distracted from the task at hand. But I think that's part of opening up to just moving through the contraction and expansion of life because there's not a lot we can control in the end, except how we respond to life.
Looking back at the month of May
May feels like it vanished in a flash, we’re already to the end of the month and I feel like I’m only just waking up to spring. I shared a lot with you this month on Ordinary Magic - I wrote about my Grandpa Bill, shared some poetry about mothers, wrote about gratitude and then I also:
shared some recordings of performance poetry:
Shared a poem about motherhood:
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good morning, dear!
Great post Raine, especially the audio part, were you talk about the deer in the sunrise. I could see everything you were talking about. You are a Monet with words.
Thank you!