It’s a cold morning. You’ve had your coffee, now it’s time to get to work. But there’s still a chill in the air and you need motivation to sit at that desk and get started. Let’s make a cup of tea.
Tea is a Sensory Experience
Unlike coffee, Tea is not about speeding up and starting your day with a racing heart. Tea is about centering. Tea is about focus. When you’re stressed or scattered, just the act of stopping, boiling water, putting that tea in the cup, and breathing the steam from the kettle as you fill your cup means that you’re giving your mind a brief and much needed reset.
Let it Steep
It takes 5 to 10 minutes to make a good cup of tea. Take it back to your desk and let it steep beside you while you work. If your hands are cold, hold the mug to warm them while you read emails. Lift the cup and breath in the steam. Smell the aroma of the tea as the flavor develops.
Take a Sip
You’re working, so a citrus or a mint tea will sharpen your mind and help you focus. Take a sip. Taste the complex flavors, feel the warmth of the liquid. Notice your mind letting go of the swirl of tasks and demands, and zero in on the cup in front of you. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Now Conquer the Day!
Put the cup down, it’s really too hot to drink fast anyway. Direct the mental focus you have gained onto the task at hand. Repeat as needed with another cup and rock this day!!
Welcome!
Hi! Welcome to Susan by a Thread and the first ever post on my first ever blog! I hope you will bear with me through the learning curve.
My name is Susan, but you can call me Sue if you like. I’m so glad you are here! I hope you will share what brings you here, but for now, how about I tell you how I found myself on this path?
I grew up in a family on the move. We started out in Michigan, moved to Colorado, and then back to Michigan where I met my husband. His job moved us even more–back to Colorado, down to Texas, then north to Oklahoma. Now we are settled permanently (probably) in Nebraska. In all that moving around, I grew to love travel and learning about new places and cultures! That love of travel, combined with my love of cooking was the original inspiration for this blog. But before I could get started, something happened that threatened to derail my blog plans.
Life sends a curveball!
In the spring of 2022, on a camping trip I was bitten by a tick. I’ll write more about this later, but that tiny bug bite changed my plans. Later that summer I was diagnosed with Alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-bite induced meat allergy. Aside from all of the logistics of dealing with a new, sudden onset food allergy, how could I write about food if I couldn’t cook or eat meat? I thought for a while that my dream of a food and travel blog wouldn’t work. But as I navigated this new allergy, and learned from others online, I realized, that I could, with some changes, move forward with my plan. The first question people ask after their Alpha-gal Syndrome diagnosis is: “What CAN I eat?” If that’s where you are, you are not alone! I hope that you find practical meal ideas and inspiration here.
This blog is for you if..
This blog is for you if you love to travel. It’s for you if you love to cook (and eat). And it’s for you if you are struggling to find inspiration and meal ideas that avoid red meat, whether it’s due to an allergy, or if you simply want the health benefits of avoiding red meat. In this blog you will find articles, and information about three main topics. Life, Cooking, and Travel. I’ll write about navigating all of these things in the context of refusing to allow a food allergy to stop me from living my best life!
I am so excited to have you along with me on this journey! Let’s go!
