What do tea and spirituality have to do with Covid you may well ask? We drank copious amounts of tea and certainly had time to investigate our spirituality.
The onset of Covid 19 came as my partner and I were recovering from and adjusting to life after a hospitality business.
What a relief it was to no longer be in the situation of figuring out how to pay the rent, the insurance, the rates, the water, the power and at the same time wonder how many customers might still be about. What a massive relief!
We escaped the business mid November 2019 and took the next few weeks completing administration matters related to it, enjoying Christmas with no limitations and finally being able to do what we wanted when we wanted. Finally we had time to drink all the teas we had been collecting and meaning to drink mindfully. As you read on you will see tea and spirituality were major parts of our covid experiences.
Tea, travel, drinking all in plans
While starting to formulate some plans about how we might use this new found life to best advantage BAM the first lockdown occurred and we were banned from going anywhere. We had talked of overseas travel, visiting tea plantations, writing of interesting teas and adventures and drinking tea in interesting places.
Instead we joined the queues looking for toilet paper, just enough for our needs. Our morning walks along the waterfront took on a new look. We now had to contend with younger couples as well as older couples. Occasionally the whole family came along. Dogs seemed to multiply daily. It became a test of our navigation skills as we attempted to stay a reasonable distance from all and sundry bemoaning the lack of skill of others. Many had no concept of the road rules which the signs on our walkway clearly state should be the guiding principles for all using them. e.g. stay to the left at all times; move off the track/road if paused or stopped; when overtaking ensure there is space to move into rather than run oppposing traffic/walkers off the track.
What to do during Covid
New routines meant we cut out morning visits to our favourite cafe and visiting friends in neighbouring towns. We missed seeing children and grandchildren for special occasions such as Easter and birthdays. We no longer attended various groups we had recently joined up with. Now how to make the most of this time? The plan was to tidy up the apartment especially the paperwork, get fit, lose weight, learn new things, write a book, start a blog/website and so on.
Well….. now we have most restrictions lifted let’s review that. Did we make the most of Covid?
The surprising results
The paperwork got tidied but is a mess again. We paid accounts and Body Corp minutes came in, superfluous government mail arrived . Also new recipes were cut out of magazines and placed on “the pile” in the cupboard. Back to old habits.
Huge efforts were made to get fit. We even bought an exercycle, $30 at Vinnies, in case we weren’t allowed out at all. Long daily walks along the waterfront were enjoyable as the weather was pleasant. It seemed like our swimming pool at the apartments had the heating turned off with no holiday makers around. That made us think twice about our usual exercise/relax in there.
As cafes were only doing take away coffees there was no appeal for another walk later in the day for a coffee. I am not a fan of takeaway cups and they were not allowed to use “keep cups”. The exercycle on the balcony did not appeal unless an emergency. The seat was uncomfortable even with a soft cushion on it; it was hard on the back leaning forward to the handle bars; it is boring cycling on the spot! Are we fit or fitter? Probably not as we still didn’t do as much exercise as usual.
People who gained weight
We thought we ate healthily to ensure we at least maintained our weight and possibly lost some. As we were home most of the time there was plenty of time to prepare interesting meals, plus morning and afternoon tea, plus supper. Oh dear, what a surprise we put on several kilos.
The website was already set up and blogging started but moved at a very slow pace, actually not much at all!
The outline of the book is drafted – well I listed many ideas which could be included. The actual book is still being mulled over – how to present the ideas, is it Memoirs, is it Life’s Learnings. Maybe it is best to pretend it is fictional? Is it really interesting after all? There are certainly plenty of on line courses on how to go about it. But still it sits ……..
So what did we actually achieve during Covid?
The one thing I did achieve from the list was learning new things. Specifically I focused on spiritualism. Wow, this was a big topic to take on and I think will fill up the rest of my life.
I joined on line meditation groups, registered for reflexology certificate courses, attended spiritual development one on one sessions, learnt about numerology, attended an online workshop on Controlled Remote Viewing. I also attended in person various Spiritualist Churches and Spiritualist groups, had personal readings from psychics, mediums, tarot card readers, angel and light language channellers, psychometry reading, did a rebirth session, had kinesiology balances, access bars treatment and probably more I have missed.
As I have always been keen to try different healing or development methods there are many others I have experienced over the years. So I am now well rounded in my experience of spirituality , its teachings and practices. The work is just beginning on practising some of the things I have learnt. Maybe we did make the most of Covid!
Most of all – I drunk even more tea, all sorts of tea and because there was no hurry it was always taken mindfully! You could say tea and spirituality are a good combo.
Click here to read about my partner Tama – a Child of the Light