tea time no. 68: Fresh Air & Simple Things

Drinking: English Breakfast Tea

Listening to: February – Dar Williams

“The garden had reached the time when every day and every night it seemed as if Magicians were passing through it drawing loveliness out of the earth and the boughs with wands. It was hard to go away and leave it all, particularly as Nut had actually crept on to her dress and Shell had scrambled down the trunk of the apple-tree they sat under and stayed there looking at her with inquiring eyes. But she went back to the house and when she sat down close to Colin’s bed he began to sniff as Dickon did though not in such an experienced way.

‘You smell like flowers and–and fresh things,’ he cried out quite joyously. ‘What is it you smell of? It’s cool and warm and sweet all at the same time.’” -The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett

Mrs. Statton read The Secret Garden aloud to my 5th grade class. It was so simple and comforting. I am constantly searching for ways to bring that kind of quiet hum into my life and my daughter’s. {I love this article from Simple Mom on 20 Tips for Finding Your Routine With Kids that I stumbled upon via Ali Edwards’s Twitter Feed.}

I didn’t plant these crocus. I’ve never seen them come up once in the seven years that I have lived in this house. But here they are. The second I saw them I thought of the Dar Williams song above that mentions them. There are a thousand metaphors for spring and new beginnings and change, but the one I keep returning to is a sense that something that I never knew was there can find its way to the surface and change everything for the better.