Lessons in life… and hot tea

Someone once asked me why I love drinking hot tea. It doesn’t have the strong aroma of coffee or the richness of hot chocolate but hot tea can be soothing, healing, and calming.

 

I think I learned to like hot tea because the weather can be biting cold in Australia where our family lived for a while when I was a child.

 

I later learned that drinking hot tea had nothing to do with the weather. When we were already in the Philippines, I drank hot tea even during warm summer afternoons.

 

Afternoon tea time became a bonding moment for me, my mom, and my piano teacher, an elderly Spanish-Filipino woman.

 

The three of us always had tea at our veranda after my piano lessons. Dad often joined us if he came home early from work.

 

My two siblings – a brother and a sister – were just too young at that time to enjoy a sip of tea and some casual conversation.

 

From those afternoon chats with my parents and teacher, I learned lessons in life, as well as which butter, jams, and marmalade go well with biscuits and tea.

 

Lesson # 1: Try different things.

 

At five years old, I thought that Lipton Yellow Label tea was the only kind of tea. I didn’t know that there were so many kinds of teas: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, pu-erh tea, and tisane (herbal tea).

 

Wanting to know more about teas, I signed up for a free Tea 101 course at About.com, a New York Times company. Seeing that there are so many things to learn about teas, I’m realizing that Journalism 101 which I took up in college was way easier than Tea 101. 

 

Anyway, thanks to Tea 101, I learned that:

 

 

Lesson # 2: When something bad happens, let that be a lesson, then move on.

 

The problem with trying different types of tea is that you might sometimes end up with a bad-tasting tea. When that happens, don’t fret. At least you know what tea to avoid. I know one tea that I would not buy again: a caramel tea made in France.

 

The packaging was very attractive. Again, another lesson: As we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, we should also not judge tea by its packaging.

 

To avoid buying a tea you wouldn’t enjoy, remember a few tips about the flavors of tea:

 

 

Lesson # 3: As 'poo' can be good, so too, seemingly unfortunate events can actually be blessings in disguise.

 

Who knew that panda poop would make a good tea? According to About.com, tea made from panda poo in Sichuan, China is the world’s most expensive tea: $35,000 for 500 grams (18 ounces).

 

Well, as the Forrest Gump movie says, “shit happens” in life. We cannot always avoid bad things from happening to us. The important thing is to rise again and move on. Dad always said: think of solutions and don’t dwell on your problems.

 

Lesson # 4: Sometimes, to move forward, you have to pause and slow down.  

Hot tea is not something you can gulp down in a minute. It is meant to be sipped slowly. Hot tea is known to have soothing and healing effects.

 

It might seem odd but hot tea is perfect on a busy day. Sometimes, when we feel overworked and stressed out, the best thing to do is to pause and slow down.

 

The late Cardinal Jaime Sin once shared that when he has a busy day ahead of him, he spends one hour at the Adoration Chapel. When he has a truly hectic day, he spends TWO HOURS at the Adoration Chapel. He said the busier he was, the more he needed to pray.

 

Lesson # 5: Treasure family and friends.

 

Finally, the most important lesson I picked up from my tea time with my parents was: Treasure family and friends. They are God’s greatest gifts to us.

 

Our dad has passed away almost five years ago but I still remember and will always cherish the things I learned from my casual conversations with him over tea. He and mom have taught us to have faith in God and to have courage for whatever comes in life.

 

Oh by the way, I also learned good life strategies when Dad taught me how to play chess at age eight. Now that’s another story… –KG, GMA News