Hope at the Bottom of a Teacup
Friday, January 14, 2022
Debra Cartwright, Untitled
INVOCATION
Ruach, fill us with a living hope.
EPIPHANY
When I married my red-headed, British-born, beloved husband, our home inherited the practice of tea - and it is so lovely.
It’s important to note that Brits don’t just have a cup of tea. No, that’s what Americans do. Americans have a cup of coffee while we walk to work, while we work, while we drive to work, while we carpool, while we attend church service, etc… But Brits have a cup of tea. They literally stop the day, put on the kettle (or plug it in) and do nothing else but have a cup a of tea.
My beautiful love will literally do anything for me. All I need do is ask. But I have learned that if I ask him to do something just as he’s settled with a cup a tea… whatever it is that I think is so pressing will have to wait. He finishes his cuppa and then delivers as expected. And nothing disastrous has ever happened in the space of time it takes to finish a cup of tea.
And it’s not just the way Brits have a cup of tea on the ordinary days that’s so lovely, it’s also the way they have tea on the hard and dark days.
A few years ago we were staying at my in-laws, one of the coziest places on Earth, when I got the news that my nephew had died by suicide. My mother-in-law held me as I cried, said a prayer over me, and then made tea for all of us to sit and have in comforting, solaced silence at her kitchen table. By the time I’d reached the bottom of the cup, I could breathe again.
Sometimes, we just need to someone to lend us their breath:
One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7, The Voice
Every day there’s a moment when everyone in our home pauses for one brief breath of life that waits for us at the bottom of a teacup. It’s a practice of hope that I’m so very grateful for – most especially on those hard days when all hope feels gone, like it will never ever return to us.
But then someone puts the kettle one.
INTERCESSION
God Who Is Our Very Breath,
With a holy kiss, may you fill
those who are breathless with despair
with hope and compassion.
May those who feel dead inside be brought to life again
with the breath of new beginnings.
Amen.
CHANT
This, the Holy Breath of life
This, the Holy Breath of life
We inhale and we exhale
This, the Holy Breath of life
BENEDICTION
Go. Put on the kettle. Breathe again.
I just want you to know that sometimes I push the “like” button, and don’t have much to say, but that doesn’t mean your words haven’t touched me deeply. They have, and they do, and I hope you know the depth of meaning of those little “like” button pushes. Thank you.
Oh, yes! Yes and amen. As one who has a cup of tea every morning and drinks it slowly like it's a spiritual practice, this has comforted me today. You captured so beautifully what I hope whenever I make a cup of tea for someone else and what my own soul needs. Breathing in this Holy Breath of Life.