The night is nearing the midnight hour and all my body wants is sleep. My mind is not at rest enough to read but it is too at rest to do anything very productive. And so I close my eyes and wish for my mind and body to give into the night. The anxiety at the back of my mind is that I leave the country in less than 4 days without the foolproof plan I had hoped for. Buying a one-way ticket to a far off country without a plan was not something I thought I would ever do in my life. Sure, it sounds utterly romantic and exciting, but seems like something that’s better to be left in novels and movie scripts rather than real life. Yet here I am, half of my suitcase is packed and I wouldn’t give up my seat on that flight if someone paid me. All of this talk in the back of my mind is keeping my mind from acquiring the conditions needed for me to fall asleep. Then, out of nowhere, the universe tells me I need tea. It wasn’t like I was craving tea or felt it would help my sleep situation but rather I was receiving a message outside myself that demanded I make a cup of tea right then. And so I carried my body out of my bed and down the stairs to prepare a cup of late-night tea for no other reason than that I felt I was required to. I found a packet containing a tea bag of the too-expensive echinacea tea I bought in the “hippy isle” of the store when I was fighting a horrible cold one year ago. I tore open the packet and slipped out the tea bag. That’s when the reason I felt I needed to make tea so badly became crystal clear right in my hands.

There is pleasure in the pathless woods.

Lord Byron

That is what the little piece of paper attached to the string of the teabag read. Part of me didn’t even feel as though it was really necessary to go through the trouble of making the tea when I had already got the answer for why I felt so strongly that I needed tea. I decided to go on and make the tea anyway because it felt like it would be cheating to get the wisdom of the tea without consuming the tea. Almost like taking the fortune out of a fortune cookie without actually eating it. And so I sipped my tea and felt my heart become at ease with every drop I consumed. Almost as if the words of Byron had found their way into the liquid and evaporated into my soul.

I’m not at all sure of what God wants me to do in Naples, Italy but I cannot help but be absolutely certain that somewhere along the pathless way it will all become clear. Perhaps with more wisdom from a cup of tea.