Mindful Teatime

The astute observer will note that my tea timer project posts are being written later in the day, sometimes even at night.  That wasn't what I expected. Since "making tea" is my first morning achievement, I pictured myself doing these mini-posts while that first cuppa was steeping. Get things done, I thought. Use that downtime for something creative.Downtime. Ha! Turns out the time spent on that first cup of tea is not the spare, quiet pause in the day I imagined it. (I claim sleepiness for my confusion. And the cat. When in doubt, always blame the cat.)  Turns out, a mountain of activities have prior claim on those precious three to seven minutes. I will never do one of these posts while awaiting the day's first tea. That time is already filled with other needful things.Here's one task list I now realize I complete by heart while tea steeps: Empty the dishwasher. Load the dishwasher. Fill the water heater with filtered water. Fill the water filter reservoir. Clean the counters. Feed the cat.That's one five-minute list. There's also the "getting food ready for dinner prep" five-minute example, the "laundry-sorting-and-starting" one, and several others which I won't inflict on you in detail. Suffice that I'm astonished how much gets done in my five-minute tea intervals. Over the years all those small, measured, mindful habits became invisible.If I want to add new activities to that part of my day (things like, say, writing a blog post, ta-dah!) I'l have to ease into the change, so as not to disrupt the existing peace. That's going to take time.  For the purposes of this monthly experiment, it's easier to fit the ew habit of writing into the later hours, when I'm more awake and less easily distracted.Just what I needed. Another excuse to drink more tea.Time: 3:07 PMTea: Cranberry AutumnSteep: 7 minutes plus cooling time.