A New Challenge, And An Age-Old Tradition

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea." ~Bernard-Paul Heroux

This quote really captures a national mindset, I believe.  There is something about the humble cup of tea, and the associated preparations, that can truly help set the mind at rest, even on a very difficult day.  I don't pretend in any way to make light of the severe troubles that I know exist (for many of my friends and family); but in celebration of the little things that help you achieve the big things, my new 90 day challenge is going to involve that cup of tea, and everything associated with it.

The key is to keep walking.  I finished my first 90-day challenge, Walk In All Weathers, and felt incredible satisfaction, accomplishment, and joy.  I decided to take five days off to rest and plan my next challenge, and that was almost a month ago.  It has truly amazed me how difficult it is to start something new once you have completed something very momentous.  I kept debating back and forth of what kind of a challenge to do - having completed the initial one, the enthusiasm and excitement about 'doing it again' just wasn't there.  I needed fresh excitement, new creativity, and continued involvement from those who had participated in my first challenge with me.

But I still need to keep walking.  One thing I learned from the first challenge was that walking really stimulates the mind, relieves stress, enhances creativity, and helps you get so much more done!  And I was truly amazed by all those who followed my journey and rejoiced in it along the way and at the end.  There weren't too many who decided to do it as well, but sadly that was not surprising.  We are a generation of watchers, not doers.  We lurk about on all avenues of social media, being impressed by everyone else and wondering why life or success or achievement is passing us by.  If that's you, the only answer is to either create your own challenge, or tack onto someone else's.  It's a beautiful thing to join in a little tribe of people who think as you do!

I thought of loads of different things that I could do, but having a schedule that varies completely day by day (including worldwide travel), it's important to have something that is doable no matter what time of the day or night, no matter where I am in the world.  And I'm conscious of my own energy issues, so I don't want to go all crazy and start running around a track and find myself collapsing at the end of five days!

So, I just decided to continue walking every day, but to add a mini-incentive of a new cup of tea every day.  I generally drink at least one if not four or five cups of tea daily, but it's rarely the standard tea as you all know it.  I'm big into herbal teas and green teas, but I'll try anything.  And for the next 90 days I'm going to attempt to have a completely different cup of tea every single day! Which means after I've gone through the twenty types in my own cupboard, I'll definitely need suggestions and ideas and new tea shops.  I can't wait!

Let me state now though that I will be pretty flexible with the word 'tea'.  I'm planning to be in sunny Arizona during this 90 day period, so drinking a cup of hot tea will not exactly be desirable.  I may have to branch out to iced tea or chai tea or something entirely new!  But I will keep you posted, and I look forward to the journey!