My Cup of Tea

        

  

                After placing two bowls of oatmeal on the table, I sat and noticed lizard poo on my placemat. I paused, but decided to deal with that later. I didn’t want the quietness of this morning interrupted as I enjoyed waking up with my hot tea. Dale said the blessing, and we ate.

               Too soon the calm would end as others began to descend upon the mission station where our old mission house, pastor’s house, and the medical worker’s house were located. People either come to talk on the high-frequency radio or to wait for medicine in the nearby aid post. Underneath our house—which is on posts seven feet off the ground—is the favored spot for sitting and waiting. Shaded from the intense tropical sun, it creates a cool spot for everyone to hang out. At times we endure screaming babies, laughing mothers, energetic children, all with the radio blaring in the office next to us. Sometimes the loudness of morning chaos puts my nerves on edge. 

               Lizard poo was the least of my worries.

Yeah...I'm not really a fan.

             Besides, it’s one of the things you learn to live with here. Not only that but rats roaming the house at night chewing on food, lizards getting into fights at the top of the wall, and the creepy sound of flying foxes (bats) at night flapping their wings outside our window. Worse is the huge annoying rat that climbs the coconut tree near the house some nights. We lie in bed listening to his constant chewing as he chomps his way through the outer husk and shell to reach the coconut meat. The noise he generates in the silence of the night is unbelievable.

               Coupled with the tropical heat and the creatures who stir in the night, sleep is a bit elusive. Some mornings I walk out bleary-eyed. So, who cares about a little lizard poo? Not me. I just want my cup of tea to wake up. 

               Some things in life aren’t worth the stress or the worry. With so many things going on in life around us, do we need to worry about those little things that annoy us? Or can we learn to sit and enjoy the moment? I am blessed to have another day to live, to love, and to serve. And the more I learn that, the more those little aggravations will become only a comma to make me pause, but not a period that makes me stop. Life doesn’t revolve around aggravations, and I can choose to ignore them. 

               Instead, I’m going to enjoy my hot steaming cup of tea with a little dab of sugar.

"And I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given to him under the sun."  (Ecclesiastes 8:15, ESV)

One of PNG's beautiful flowers.

(C) 2016 Carin G. LeRoy