I had no idea what to expect from attending my very first tea sit. It certainly wasn’t advertised as a “tea party,” in which case I would have been compelled to wear the one frumpy-looking hat I owned. Even when I googled “tea sit,” no such a thing existed. How could that be? Everything that popped up consisted of how long to allow tea to brew.
As I pulled into the steep driveway, lined by lush trees and other foliage, and branched in opposite directions, I saw a gathering of women already seated on the porch. Another woman and I were the last two to arrive, making a satisfying total of eight. Enough people to make the conversation rich, but small enough for everyone to be heard.
The UT graduate student who conducted the tea sit had several tea cups that held perhaps four sips of tea, so it was more for whetting one’s whistle than quenching one’s thirst. And like all events where no electronic devices are involved, time slowed down.
The hostess informed us that she liked arranging these teas because she wanted to create groups where people had self-renewing care mechanisms in place to address well-being. My takeaway from the gathering was that she wished to create a means for people to exit the rat race where it’s a constant battle, mentally and physically.
We were a multiracial group of women where none of us were mothers, whether child-free by choice or childless by circumstances. We all acknowledged that we could pour our time and energy into child-rearing or practically everything else that needed creative energy.
In addition to discussing self-care, we discussed, inevitably, our immersion into the toxic political climate, especially how the dominant narrative reacts to changing circumstances. Despite how “changing demographics are being foisted on the American people,” a nonsensical statement in reality since the demographics are a reflection of what’s happening in American society, Americanism in this case was use synonymously with “White.”
The alarm was sounded because American society appears browner over time, yet, looking at congress and other positions of power, there is still an overrepresentation of Whites; but the drum beat of the mid-term elections promises to diversify at least the political demographics.
So the constant challenge remains how to achieve both personal balance with one’s daily life as well as navigating through the changes happening all around us.