GREEN TEA AND ZEN

Good evening!



Today's highlight was joining the community center. Our I.D. cards will be ready for pick-up tomorrow, and we will hit the indoors track. I've missed walking for exercise. We haven't put feet to track since cold weather hit. Don and I are looking forward to putting in the miles and working out on the resistance machines right next to the track. Very convenient! I lifted these photos from the community center's web page so you can see where we'll be walking and exercising.








Today has been a good day even though the high didn't get much above 16 degrees. Brrr! I hate this, but I think I can hang on because I know it is only a month -- exactly -- until Ground Hog Day, and Punxatawney Phil, with any luck at all, might tell me on Feburary 2 that there is less than 6 weeks of winter left. Keep your fingers crossed!


Did you realize that 2008 is a Leap Year? This year February 29th will pop up on the calendar. All those poor people born on that day won't be short-changed of their own special day this year! Presidential election coming up, of course. Isn't there some sort of curse involved with being elected in an election year that can be divided evenly by 4? A president's chances of dying in office are greatly increased, or something like that. That would be enough for me to keep my hat out of the ring. I'm not obsessively superstitious, but I don't like to push my luck in the face of overwhelming odds either. Better safe than sorry.


I stepped on the scales this morning! I tried to talk myself out of it. Weak June whined and pleaded to Strong, Do Everything Right June that she didn't want to do it. I will tell you that I weigh more than I would like, but not as much as I'd feared! My goal to weigh between 110 and 115 pounds in this lifetime is not an impossibility. It ain't gonna be easy or quick, but it's not impossible. There is hope. I'm not setting a time goal. I'll be at goal weight when I get there.



I ate a salad, fish, and stir-fried vegetables --mostly yellow squash -- for lunch, and ate leftovers from the salmon, broccoli and bean salad from yesterday for dinner. I slipped up at lunch and ate a bowl of vanilla pudding sprinkled with chocolate chips. I forgot I was giving up sugar. With any luck at all, I'll remember tomorrow. I'm still using the salt shaker, but trying to cut back. Mugs of hot Chai Tea Latte keep me going during the day. I love the fragrant aroma of Chai Tea. It fortifies my soul.


Speaking of tea, I told you that I'm sipping green tea often. I'm a tea freak, so I have all kinds of brands and flavors of it around here. Some with gingseng, some with lemon and honey, etc. I want to talk about the green tea I drank yesterday. Sometimes I think that I might be more of a tea package freak than a tea drinking freak. Part of the appeal of drinking tea, besides the mind-calming ritual of it, is the packaging. I'm sure you've all glorified in the colorfully designed boxes that Celestial Seasonings Tea Company packs their teas in. It's just as much fun and uplifting to read the pithy quotes and look at the neat paintings on the box as it is to sip the tea. The tea I drank yesterday is not a Celestial Seaonings blend. It's packed in a soothing leaf-green colored box, and its tea bag casing is one of the best I've seen.


This tea is Tazo Zen Green Tea and Herbal Infusion. Isn't that a wonderful name? Doesn't that bring up all kinds of positive images? Underneath the word "Tazo" are the words "The Reincarnation Of Tea." This tea has been reborn. One of the definitions of reincarnation is " a rebirth of a soul in a new human body." Of course, that means in a completely different human body than the one it was living in when it died. I'm changing that slightly to fit my personal situation. I want my soul reborn in the my same body, but I want that body new and improved by the end of 2008. I predict that I will be purchasing lots of Tazo Zen Tea this year. I believe in grabbing hold of anything that brings me pleasure in any way.....large or small. For such a small investment, Tazo Zen Tea does it for me. It's an experience, not just a tea.


Moving down the tea casing, I read a confident and uplifting statement: " An enlightening blend of the finest green teas and rare herbs available in this world." I am to be enlightened with the finest of teas and the rarest of herbs available in the whole wide world! Imagine that! And why? Because I'm worth it, doggone it! That thought makes me feel good. The people who package this tea are 100% sure that they sell the best tea ever, and they are making it available to me because I deserve the best.


Listen to these ingredients: Green teas, lemon verbena, spearmint, lemongrass and natural flavors. No unnatural flavors. That's definitely a plus, since I'm trying to cut additives and dyes from my diet when possible. This is a very fragrant tea. How could it not be when it's made from lemon verbena, spearmint and lemongrass? Lemon Verbena was a favorite scent of the Victorians. Bath and Body Shop carries it still.


On the back is another statment that makes me feel good about drinking this hot, steaming beverage. This wording calms me with the peaceful picture it paints in my mind: "High in the Kunlun Mountains of China, monks spend days chanting and meditating in the hopes of reaching complete enlightenment. Periodically, they stop for a cup of tea quite like this." Quite like this. This makes me want to brew another cup of tea, grab a few of those unread Daily Oms and meditate for enlightment. Maybe I could forget about this frigid weather for a while. In my mind I see a huge statue of Buddha looking down on a group of about 100 monks....all sitting in the Lotus posture..... thousands of lighted candles on the floor around them... and chants of "Om, Shanti, Om" fill the air and vibrate my skull.


The last bit of writing makes me smile. I just know the writer wrote it with a twinkle in his or her eye. It's earnest, but injected with quiet humor, and I quote:


"To ask questions, share observations or simply have a bit of human contact, write us at Tazo, P.O. Box 66, Portland, OR 97207, or visit us at http://www.tazo.com/. Allow two weeks of this lifetime for a written response."


I am so tempted to write or e-mail them. I bet their response would make me smile. "To ask questions, share observations or simply have a bit of human contact..." They want to hear from me ....or you. They really care. I'm not being facietious when I say this. I think they really do. And they promise to answer in two weeks of this lifetime! That's more than a certain magazine that I won't name can say.

See you tomorrow......