This is an incredible Taiwanese oolong that I bought from
Eco-Cha a month ago. It sat on my tea shelf until I found it in a cleaning spree, and I then broke it out.
Basically, GABA tea has been oxidized in a very specific environment, which increases the amount of GABA, a neurotransmitter that's supposed to reduce stress and anxiety. And while people argue over whether GABA really passes through the blood-brain barrier, my anecdotal evidence is that this tea truly does destress me. Is it placebo? Who knows.
The taste is sweet and full, with an almost milky mouth-feel without any of the ever taste. The leaves unfurl into large, brown banners. It is the perfect tea for those moments when everything seems to be a complete mess.
I mean this both figuratively and literally.
One of the perils of being me is that when the space around me gets messy, my head gets messy. I stop paying attention to my surroundings so I can avoid thinking about how messy things are, and when I stop paying attention to my surroundings, everything falls apart. I fall behind on everything and then I'm so behind on all the things that I can't possibly spend any time cleaning.
This means that at the moment when I'm most busy, I realize that I cannot cut up an apple because I have eighteen books on the kitchen counter and the far kitchen counter is stacked with tea, and also, I never did put away the seaweed I got at the store and while we are here, I decided that now (???) was a good time to start making microgreens, so I now have microgreen starts taking up all of the rest of the room. (The microgreens are not an analogy.)
So let's stop and drink some tea. This tea is calming, and asking it allows me to open my eyes and ask some questions. Questions like: What if every surface in my kitchen wasn't filled with excess tea? What if I could be a semi-reasonable person with a haphazard semblance of impulse control? What would that look like?
For a moment, I imagine a serene, rational version of myself who doesn't wildly react on impulse and think, yes. That's what I need to do. That's who I need to be.
Then I remember that in fact I have never been able to be that person before, I am not that person now, and I can't just make myself into a different person with the power of my mind. I know this. I've tried.
Short newsletter because things are busy this week.
