Slowly, one by one, sounds seep into the quiet of dawn. Distant birds begin their song and whispered greetings pass below on the street. Garden scents infuse the room, mingling with my fading dreams. I hear a kettle boiling, and anticipate the warming character and rich aroma of the first cup of tea. I open my eyes to a day full of promise.
According to the writeup on the T (Tealeaves.com) teabag package I happened upon, this is how I will feel as I wake up and drink their Blend no. 2211 English Breakfast black tea. Gosh. I didn’t know what I have been missing all along. I’ve got to get me one of those mornings. One of those bedrooms. Where can I order up the birds … the garden scents…. the quiet dawn and the gently emerging day?
I have visions of a quaint cottage-like house in an English garden setting. No wait. I’m remembering a house I visited during my school girl days while living in Ireland. On the phone I pressed my father for details. “Remember that time? The Fiat car? The house? I was wearing my favourite red dress? The garden? Where was that? The name starts with a B…”
Before my twin children were born, a little over a year ago, my days started something like this. I woke up with a start because I couldn’t breathe. (I’d blame a poorly constructed nasal passage.) I’d just been dashing about the world – usually in Asia somewhere – orienteering up a storm in my dreams. The alarm would go off and I would throw myself out of bed and scramble about before throwing myself into 1 1/2 hours of travel on public transit using three modes of transportation. I’d squeeze a path through a crush of tired, harried students. All those years dashing about in Tokyo must have paid off. The only item that kept my mornings gentle was the noise reducing Bose earphones I wore and the sunglasses I sported while sitting on the subway.
Something tells me most people have mornings like I did.
Perhaps I would have welcomed the promise of the day better if I woke up earlier, filled one of my china tea cups with tea and watched the sunrise over the panoramic cityscape view outside my apartment’s windows.
I suppose it is always easier to fantasize about a garden across the pond.
These days my morning starts differently. Since I’m usually up later than I should be (working on this or that after the twins go to bed), I wake up from a heavy sleep to the happy chatter of twin babies talking to each other across the room. Sometimes it is hard to get going, but the moment I enter their room and see their happy faces, the tone of my day has been set. Not quite a morning of distant birds and quiet gradens scents, but a day full of promise nonetheless.
Pamela Chan/Publisher, BCfamily.ca
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