tea

 Image Flickr: Afri Ola

The first cup caresses my dry lips and throat, 

The second shatters the walls of my lonely sadness,
The third searches the dry rivulets of my soul to find the stories of five thousand scrolls. 

With the fourth the pain of past injustice vanishes through my pores.
The fifth purifies my flesh and bone.
With the sixth I am in touch with the immortals.
The seventh gives such pleasure I can hardly bear. The fresh wind blows through my wings
As I make my way to Penglai.*

 

Lu Tong (A.D. 618-907) Tang Dynasty.

 

(*Penglai, a mountain in China, was the traditional home of the immortals.)

 

My mum posted this beautiful poem as a comment on my post here.  I loved it so much that I had to share it properly, and given that it's still "Poem Thursday..."  

 

I am now feeling much better, but it wasn't tea that did it this time, but cooking in the kitchen.  We're having a few people over to our house this evening as a belated 'house-warming' and I cooked up a storm lastnight.  There was tomato sauce on the stove for salsa, mini red-velvet cupcakes in the oven, I was chopping salad for our dinner and soaking chickpeas for Hummos.  All the while listening to ABC Radio National's 'Hindsight' podcast.  By the end of the evening I was thoroughly exhausted but feeling much, much more chipper.  Oh, and booking myself in for a haircut didn't hurt either!