“A woman is like a tea bag.  You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.”  Eleanor Roosevelt

My sister sent a special card this week with this quote on it. As an avid tea drinker,  I brew pots and cups of tea all day long – green tea, black tea, rooibos & herbal teas.  My stash of over 60+ teas fills an entire cabinet. Even though I try to use  it up, there are always so many interesting teas to try whilst gadding about (& we must keep tea businesses thriving!)

Some tea snobs only drink loose-leaf tea, but I’m an equal opportunity tea drinker utilizing loose-leaf AND tea bags depending on the time of day, mood or whatever.  So, this quote got me thinking about women, teabags … and teacups.

There are so many different kinds of teacups, just like there are so many different kinds of women – shy, authoritative, introverts, extroverts, reticent, magnanimous, leaders, servers, thinkers, doers, tall, short, thin, traditionally-built, well-rounded, well-grounded, flighty…

Some of us are fragile, like this china tea cup… (note the rose!)

Yet, when boiling water pours into the fragile cups of our lives, we make strong tea.

Like my Mama – so very fragile, yet she demonstrated incredible determination and strength as she took care of our bedfast quadriplegic Papa for so many years.

This is one of Mama’s porcelain cups, a treasured memory of countless shared teatimes. Like her, it’s so very beautiful.  A reminder of how she loved blue birds & appreciated the beauty of creation – a conscious act that can elevate our minds & spirits, especially when times are tough.

Some of us are like this sturdy, hand-pottered mug. Unique. Like turtles on a fence post, placed somewhere maybe not of our choosing, but the teabags of our lives give strength to others when tempests arise.

We women are a diverse bunch, like this Kenyan cup & saucer from a tea set made by women in Nairobi.  When the disparate parts of our lives tear us apart, we can drown in our sorrows, or swirl them together into something beautiful for God & for others.  We can choose joy, even when suffering limits the strength of our teabags.

And some of us are just ordinary, like this tea cup I use every morning. It’s a little cracked around the edges and well worn over many years, yet it’s still a beautiful cup. That’s the thing – women come in all shapes, sizes & hues, yet most of us lead ordinary lives.  As the hot water of life’s challenges steep us, we may get a little cracked around the edges, but in time we can find we are stronger because of what we have endured.

We may be ordinary, yet extraordinary, because… we are WOMEN!

grace, peace & teatime

Virginia : )