Make it deliberately
Warm the pot, measure honestly, and let it steep while standing still, which is a smaller version of the standing meditation the yoga class never quite gets to. The tea’s four minutes are a relaxation exercise wearing a domestic task.
Drink it sitting, at the table or in the chair, without a second activity. This is harder than it sounds and worth exactly as much as it sounds.
Let it close sections
Tea after the sequence, tea after the walk, tea before the candle hour: the cup marks the transitions that unmarked evenings blur. Punctuation is the difference between an evening and four hours.
Keep the late cup weak or herbal; the sleep that the whole evening serves gets the final vote, and it votes against caffeine after eight.
Published by the Velilume journal.