The Magic of Tea

It’s Saturday here in Abu Dhabi and I just woke up from a wonderful nap…a rare occasion, I might say. This passed week has been an emotional roller coaster as we are starting to say goodbye to good friends who are making that trek back home to resume their lives in the real world…(those of us here will understand that particular sentence all too well!) I can’t believe that so much time has passed and that we are at that stage of our adventure here. There have been many dinners, lunches, and morning café conversations about this lately and for many of us, it’s a first time experience…saying goodbye is not fun!! No doubt about it, it’s not easy…nor is it any easier to do it for those of us who have done it too many times already. Knowing the literal and physical being with each other changes, places in the heart for these dear friends do not change and the good memories of what was here will now come into play for the most part over an email or a phone call and a very nice cup of tea. I know this may sound a bit too simplistic at this particular moment, but when I think of those people who through the years became my good friends…my best memories are surrounded by my time with them and a warm cup of tea.

 

Some of my fondest memories of my time with Carolyn and Sarah were on the road to Newark England on our way to the antique market. Those trips would not have been  complete if we had not included the cozy and small out of the way places we found on the search for a good cup of tea and scones. Weddings, baby showers, and rehearsal dinners have all been planned around Peggy’s kitchen table with our tea in hand and more recently Terry telling me I needed to meet my Nancy who has become my “partner in crime” happened over a lovely cup of tea. I have relived my story with my boys watching my friend Naz and her two young men over a cup of tea sitting on the floor with them rediscovering Big Bird and missing my guys at the ripe old age of four and two. And rarely does a conversation happen with my sister that a cup does not accompany our times together in person or on the phone. I go way back and think of Diana and Karen and getting to know them in our initial years in the Navy, wondering if I could do this as they was my example and years later offering tea to those young wives coming in who didn’t know what to expect… Yesterday several of us gathered to bid our friend, Terry goodbye. The event started with tea and conversation and ended with...tea and conversation.
 
 Tea and friendship...words that belong together. When tea is offered, no words have to be shared. It’s simply understood, don’t you think?