Marash Girl's mother loved teapots; her children always bought her a teapot for her birthday, for Christmas, for her anniversary. Jennie never broke a teapot or a teapot cover, and used them all the time to make Chai way before Chai became popular.
When company was coming, she would simply toss cinnamon sticks and cloves into a pot of boiling water and simmer for a while. The welcome scent of cinnamon and cloves would fill the house and greet the guests. When it came time to serve the tea, Jennie poured the spiced boiling water into a teapot over several teabags of Lipton black tea (that's all they had at the supermarket in those days--way before the time of Constant Comment or loose tea).
So it comes as no surprise that Marash Girl loves teapots, but whichever teapot is her favorite of the moment, she invariably breaks its cover.
What really made Marash Girl appreciate a teapot was when she went visiting one day and the woman she was visiting offered her a cup of tea. The woman boiled water, poured boiling water into each tea cup, took one teabag, dipped it into her cup, then when her tea was dark enough, dipped the used teabag into Marash Girl's cup. The woman thought she was conserving all kinds of things -- tea, energy, paper, waste, etc. etc. But what she wasn't conserving was grace.
Grace and conservation go hand in hand. One teabag (or better yet, one heaping teaspoon of your favorite loose tea) in one teapot of hot water goes a very long way!
0 comments:
Post a Comment