When the kids were younger we’d be on the soccer sidelines for pretty much every Saturday and Sunday and we loved it! I miss those days for so many reasons.
I have a sad confession to make, though, that I’d sometimes be really hungover. It’s a source of shame when I look back on it. Fortunately I’ve moved on and forgiven myself, but still, it’s a sad memory.
When I stopped drinking, I discovered tea and all the ways one can enjoy and even geek out over it. I had no idea what I was doing but it didn’t matter. I was stumbling into it gladly. Can one even make any mistakes? I don’t think so!
One of the joys I discovered is that I could make a fresh cup of tea for the soccer sidelines. Morning, afternoon, evening. Rain, sun, cold, hot weather. I’d pop open the thermos and take little whiffs and sips. Tea is so good outside!
Even if the tea was my “day drinker“, one that I thought I knew inside and out, I’d have a new experience with it on the sidelines.
It dawned on me that now I was getting as much from that cup of tea as I thought I’d get with a glass of wine on the sidelines. (The joy of latter is a figment of my imagination.) But, hey! It’s totally acceptable to be drinking tea on the sidelines! I felt like I discovered a secret.
Now that I look back on watching all of those soccer games with my kids, I think back very fondly about the whole experience and even better with a great cup, any cup of tea in my hands.