Tea Bag Fortunes
BY KIRTI BHADRESA
Photo by Kirti Bhadresa.
From the first day that school was cancelled due to the pandemic, March 15, 2020, until the day school would have ended for the summer break, our youngest child, Ravi, collected the tags, just the ones with poems and sayings, from the many (many) cups of tea that we drank at home together.
Like everyone, we paused. We read old stories on the worn sofa, watched cartoons, put on our heavy coats, scarves and thickest gloves to hollow out caves in the knee-deep snow between the young trees in the front yard. After, we sipped hot tea, and worried quietly, yes.
Our son, Ravi, six years old, scissored thin strings with warm hands, freed opaque bags of scented leaves to be dropped in the blue pot of steaming water, kept the paper tags imprinted with short prose, fortunes not made for such uncertain times.
(Who decides the discourse of dried plant life? Who pores over volumes of poetry seeking the simple lines to be factory-printed, who decides which scant lines are most satisfying to consume in a single, neat gulp?)
Over cups of hot tea, bare feet swinging, Ravi worked through the syllables, sounded out the messages that might guide us, safe but bickering, bored, through a blur of winter days. After reading aloud, he stacked each paper tag into a jar, closed the metal clasp tightly, and placed the jar on on the shelf in the living room—amid the clutter of unreturnable library books, stones from places we once travelled to, twisted rubber bands, and old birthday cards.
Months later, Ravi still pops open the lid sometimes, closes his eyes, holds his nose close and inhales the lingering chaos: licorice spice, sweet cinnamon, bursting mint, lemon ginger, surprising as summertime.
I sit beside him, tea in hand, awaiting sturdier wisdom for this strange time.
Photo by Kirti Bhadresa.
KIRTI BHADRESA is a caffeine-fuelled political junkie, outraged citizen journalist, non-linear gardener, guerilla bread baker, daughter of warriors, mother to heroes. Her hobbies include shouting at radios, long walks with short dogs, spotting of false dichotomies, and colouring where she wants. www.beingkirti.com