Team Up Thursday - Week 37 - Tea Time/Coffee Break

Sorry there was not post/update last week...I had suggested the them Tea Break/Coffee Time...and then both Mariette and I had an absolutely awful week...Mariette did manage to take a photo which she said was "doable"...I did not even pick up my camera...but I did get a cute little e-mail message with a picture of a cup of coffee, with which I was prepared to cheat - Mariette would have none of it - "If it not a picture taken by you in the week of the theme, it defeats the object" - Thank you Mariette - you made me try harder this week....
I love Mariette's picture and the fact that she creatively looks at the whole theme and come up with a totally unexpected angle - I am impressed, dear friend...

Mariette says that her favourite tea break is top deck dunked in her tea - I will have to try that someday - my favourite is marshmallow easter eggs dunked in tea or Bar One dunked in coffee - But I only allow myself that decdent treat when Mike is away for an extended period - I kind of feel that is when I need the ULTIMATE comfort most.
My picture is of a pretty "Tea for One' - a small teapot and tea cup, combined in one neat, pretty little package...

Interestingly, I do not enjoy breakfast in bed, but bring me a cup of tea in the morning whilst I am still tucked in and warm - That is a real spoil for me - Pass the top deck please...

When I mentioned to Mariette that I have never used my tea for one, she said that we actually never take a proper tea break - it is always a cuppa grabbed on the run whilst we do a million other things...I think I need to start taking tea/coffee breaks and really savour the moment - The universe and everything in it, will wait for me - Won't it???

I have done a lot of thinking in the past two weeks...and have reached two profound conclusions...

Ally of Shybiker recently did a Dear Ally post and in it she said

"In 1764, the philosopher Voltaire wrote that "The perfect is the enemy of the good."  He meant that trying to be perfect is not be worth the effort if it costs you in other ways.  Good enough is better than failed, depressing attempts at perfection."

I think of myself as a "closet perfectionist" married to a "purist perfectionist" - By closet perfectionist I mean that, of course I would like to do everything perfectly, but I know that it is not always obtainable, so I pretend that I don't mind it not being perfect...but deep down it upsets and depresses me - I am definately going to try and change and be content with good enough when perfection is not obtainable. (Purist perfectionist by the way is the highest order of the perfectionist...)

I also just finished reading a book called "I Have Life" by Alsion who as a young woman (15 years ago) from Port Elizabeth in South Africa was kidnapped, raped and savagely attacked, by two men who claimed to be satanists.  The attack included having her throat slit and being stabbed - and then she was left for dead...She survived and later identified her attackers and her evidence in court was instrumental in having her attackers convicted.  Her story is inspirational (it is the second time I have read the book - it has a much deeper effect on me this time around)...In the book she says that she survived becasue she chose to and then, once her injuries had healed and she had to return to main stream life, she had to choose to live...She makes two statements at the end of the book ..."Being happy is a choice that every individual can make" and "You don't have to be the best - just be your best"....

We get so busy in being busy at work and at home and trying to be perfect and do the right thing all the time and teach our children to do the same that we have forgotten some of the basics...one of those basics is how to be happy - we have lost sight of the people we wanted to be and do not know how to live our lifes the way we wanted to...Instead we spend all our energy battling to exist in this huge concrete mixer that we have created...

We need to go back to basics - take proper coffee breaks (not just grab a quick cuppa on the run) and savour them, we need to get in touch with nature - stop and listen to the birds singing and the flowers growing...Did you hear that they closed a runway at JFK airport today - to let 150 slow moving turtles cross on thier way to find nests to lay their eggs - that is what we should be doing every single day - No, not laying eggs, but allowing nature to "be" and letting our lives wait for us to catch up with nature...And we should be kinder and gentler to people around us - Everyone is busy with their own journeys and we do not know how tough another person's journey is, but we should be accepting that their journey could be tougher then we will ever know and we should make allowance for that...
And our children - who seem so much stronger and more grown up then we were at their age - and they are, because they have so much more pressure then we had...but they still need gentleness and love, because their young spirits can still be crushed by a careless or harsh word from us....

Well that is my very "deep" post this week...Next week our topic is all about HAIR - it should be fun...

Lots of love