Ha ha…bet that got your attention.

I’m on a serious ‘tea’ kick, and it’s all my sister’s fault.  If you study the tea aisle carefully, you’ll find that there is a tea for every ailment in life.  When I came down with a stress fracture, she brought me 3 different kinds of tea and honey.  Being the open minded, slightly sometimes skeptical, person I am…I went for it.  It did make me feel better.  No, tea doesn’t heal stress fractures…but if you’ve ever known an avid runner who get’s the rug pulled out from under them after injury like I did, you know all too well that the sudden absence of the daily ritual can be grueling…on the runner and on everyone around them.  So, the tea helped with that.

Then, I got bombed with a winter cold.  One of those where your nose drips so fast that before you can get a Kleenex to your nose in time the clear runny snot has run down your nose, over your mouth, and hit your toes.  Totally disgusting.  So, that first day, when I went through 2 boxes of Kleenex, I overloaded on tea.  Hoping for some relief, I tried 6 different kinds throughout the day… multiple mugs of hot tea.  Shocker…I overdid it on the tea, and then felt nauseous.

However, like anything, in  moderation a cup or two of tea each day is pretty enjoyable.  Winter is cold and sucky…who doesn’t want to curl up with a hot cup of tea while their 2 rambunctious girls are napping?

I don’t know if it’s just a runner thing or a me thing…but I always run for the nearest possible solution when something’s wrong.  Running injury…I’m on my 3rd doctor.  Common cold…overload on Mucinex and tea.  Always, I bump into the same solution.  There really is no substitute for patience.  There really is no easy solution, most of the time.  Maybe my rushing around to find one just eliminates all the quick ones right away so that I then have no choice but to settle with the fact that there is nothing to do but be patient and wait it out.

Colds linger.  Stress fractures linger.  No amount of stretching and tea can really speed up either of those two things.  Which turns out ok.in between the short bouts of depression over missing my morning rendezvous with my running shoes.  When I am forced to slow down and stop over-tasking myself…those are the days that I truly appreciate where I’m at in life.

My current weekly highlight real consists not of speed workouts on the track…but rather multiple rounds of Chutes and Ladders, stringing beaded necklaces, dressing up dollies and Barbies, and homemade pies.  I’m a believer in ‘everything in moderation.’  (I said I believe it…not follow it to a tee…ha ha…or tea…)  Though I love rushing about (blame that verb-age on the tea, I guess…and too many viewings of The Holiday- nah..latter not possible.), I need the forced down time.  Without it I take for granted what’s right in front of me, and start to assume my daily run will appear like clockwork from now until forever.  And that I can’t possibly remain mentally and physically happy without punishing myself out on the road every morning.

Still, I miss running tremendously.  The first time I hit the road after this injury, I literally smile the whole time…and dance a little.  Yea, I can dance and run simultaneously.  You would, too, if you had my i pod for a run.  What’s on it?  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.  No really…

It was a glorious run…or 3…and now my leg hurts again.  Guess I wasn’t patient enough.  Bring on the tea.

So, thank you little sister…for tea-bagging me…ha- now that’s just hilarious…and slightly wrong.  Even if to just take a moment of the day to steal away for a toasty mug of warm yumminess…the tea has purpose.  The next time I’m ailing or perplexed (which, lets face will more than not be sooner than later …) a cup of tea will be my first order of business.  And my favorite is Blueberry.

Happy Tea Time 🙂

Megs