Like many of you, I am beginning my sixth week of extreme social distancing. My work life, social life, and family life have all moved online. I am very happy to maintain my connections with students, friends and family. My advanced literature course has turned into a fabulous Zoom book club discussing Zola’s Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris). And raucous family happy hours (“cocktail hour” as Mom calls it) launch me into each weekend.
Yet in spite of the abundance of positive and supportive interactions, I’ve had to find ways to keep my pandemic anxiety at bay. I’m coming to understand that when daily existence is dramatically different from anything we’ve previously known, we must call on our own spiritual or philosophical foundations and tap into our personal strength as a means to soothe ourselves. I expect that you each practice your own calming rituals. Today I share a few of mine, as a few of you may want to adopt and adapt one of these practices.
Long Walks and Audio Books
Reading has always been my balm, but with a heavier work load, expanded screen time, and physical stagnation, I’ve found it very difficult to settle down with a book. Audio books have rescued me! Every day that it doesn’t rain, I walk for an hour and listen to an audiobook, borrowed from my public library. All of my pandemic reading has been escapist: The Most Fun We Ever Had (Claire Lombardo), The Burning Chambers (Kate Mosse), and A Long Petal of the Sea (Isabel Allende). A family drama, an historical novel set in Toulouse, and the great Chilean author’s most recent novel. Each and every one has been a joyful, intriguing read.
No Waste Kitchen
My grandma always said that cooking was her therapy. It’s my therapy too, but I’ve had to change my approach during the pandemic. I can’t pop out to the grocery store on a whim like I used to. I must work with what I have on hand, and I have become very strict about waste in my kitchen. No parsley stem goes unused. Each and every knob of ginger gets worked into a dish, and I constantly strategize about how I can best use freezer space. Some of my meals have been deliciously memorable. A few have flopped. But each and every day, the process has been grounding.
Reading with Nora
Before the coronavirus, I had never taught small children. But when I learned that my six year-old niece Nora wouldn’t be in school for the foreseeable future, my duty as aunt and educator inspired me to step into the role of first grade reading teacher. Every morning at 11:00 Nora FaceTimes me, and we spend 30-40 minutes working on reading and writing. We’ve found a pleasant, loose rhythm in our class. We take turns reading to each other from the Scholastic Learn at Home program, and then we move to a more advanced Beverley Clearly book: Beezus and Ramona. Nora reads most of the dialogue, which is challenging without becoming frustrating. And I read the rest. Some days she is enthralled! I’ve learned to be flexible in my pedagogy. Some days she just wants to tell me about walking in the woods with her dad or building a snowman. Other days, writing and drawing take precedent over reading. A few days ago, she wanted to make a prank phone call to Uncle Jack, so we did. For me, the priority is keeping everything fun and wrapping up the lesson when I see Nora’s attention lagging. The regularity and lightness of our class has been stabilizing for me. Although I have always felt that I know Nora well, I am getting to know her better each week. Not just as an aunt, but as a first-grade reading teacher and as a confidant.
Tea. Always Tea.
I have long been a devoted tea drinker. My favorite tea shop is still shipping and offering curbside pickup, so my tea cupboard is staying stocked. I have also used long days at home to dig deep into my tea collection. I’ve pulled out rare oolongs that need multiple steepings to bring out their nuances; I’ve dug into samples that tea friends have gifted me in the last few years; this afternoon I sipped a wild Pu-erh from my friend Nana Ding’s Strasbourg shop. The ritual of preparing tea is soothing in itself, but scientific research is beginning to demonstrate the health benefits of tea that come from caffeine, EGCG, and L-theanine.
How are you self-soothing these days?
In the realm of space, your life is nothing but the lively energy of life, interconnecting with everything.
[DECEMBER 2018 NOTE: The Rabbit Hole’s Redfern location will close after December 23, 2018, but Barangaroo location will still be open.]
T Totaler is a homegrown tea business, focusing on Australian grown teas and botanicals. Founded in 2012, Amber and Paul Sunderland make custom tea blends for restaurants, develop tea-based “mocktails”, and teach workshops. At their Newtown tea bar, I sampled a dazzling Teagroni, an iced White Peony tea with rose petals, and a hot Australian grown Sencha with coconut and lemon myrtle. Each one was perfect in its own way, and the tea bar’s decor was charmingly cozy with fiddle leaf figs and apothecary jars. Since my visit, T Totaler has opened a second location in the center of Sydney, which is now their primary location.
One of Sydney’s favorite dumpling restaurants, Lotus The Galeries also features a range of teas. I had the privilege and pleasure of sharing dumplings and tea cocktails with Sydney’s own teagramming sisters Neha and Smruthi. This charming and generous sister team marries the art of tea with the art of cocktails on their 
Sydney’s innovative and cutting edge tea scene also leaves room for traditional afternoon tea that showcases high end teas and fine pastries incorporating local ingredients. I spent a leisurely and luxurious afternoon at the Langham Sydney. This afternoon teatime is perhaps the most perfect I’ve ever experienced—attentive service, perfectly-infused teas, delightful savories and sweets, a cozy armchair. The pink champagne enhanced my languorous afternoon! I was able to sample a number of teas—a subtle Orange blossom tea, a creamy black Assam, and a white tea with melon. The scones were warm and crumbly, and other sweets were graced with an Australian touch: a hibiscus and guava tart and a cherry lamington. The savories were traditional and spot on: a curried free range egg finger sandwich as well as a prawn, shallot and dill finger sandwich.
