#midlifereflection

Nobody orders lemon and mint when life is going perfectly.

It’s the drink people start making after breakups, after doctor visits, after looking in the mirror one morning and realizing exhaustion has a face now.

Cold water. Fresh lemon. Mint leaves floating like somebody trying again.

Funny how healing rarely begins with dramatic moments. Usually it starts with small decisions made alone in quiet kitchens.

In my 30s, everything had to be loud. Loud restaurants. Loud opinions. Loud ambition.

Then one winter night in Manhattan, an old Taiwanese man poured me a cup of oolong tea and said, “You don’t have to perform every day.”

I laughed back then. Now I think about that sentence more than I should.

Some teas don’t wake you up. They calm the war down inside your head.