Never far

Julia ♦ November 26, 2025 ♦ Leave a comment

I photographed this tea table in a Monticello shop, June 2014

“Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty.”
—James Norwood Pratt

It seems contradictory that a chatterbox such as I am would love silence as much as I do, but there it is. Perhaps it comes of having lived with Jeff for so many years. Or maybe it comes from having grown up in a noisy, boisterous family until Jeff came along and rescued me from too much verbal stimulation, drawing me into a saner, more regular rhythm of life.

Habits die hard, so I still talk a lot, but I have learned to love silence. A good thing, too, since I now pass, by my own estimate, 80-90% of my waking hours in complete silence. After Alexa delivers my morning flash briefing (usually less than five minutes long), not even television or radio intrude. But wait, there are those endless unabridged recorded books…okay, maybe I should say “without speaking” instead of “in complete silence.”

Either way, Pratt’s quote struck a chord with me. Tea is quiet, if not totally silent. There is the gurgling of the kettle, the tinkling of the teaspoon against the cup as it stirs, and then the whisper-quiet sound of sipping. But the part of Pratt’s quote that rang out most strongly was the observation that thirst for tea is proximal to the craving for beauty. That’s certainly true for me, and I imagine it’s true for most other tea lovers as well.

Tea has an attainable, humble beauty, even when the blend is an expensive one. The ritual of preparation is simplicity in itself; all one needs is water and a means of heating it to a boil. Sugar and cream are optional, and many of us long ago dispensed with using them on a regular basis, savoring the nuanced flavor of one particular brew as compared to another without the distraction of sweetener.

Mornings are hard for me, and maybe for you too. It helps immensely to start each day with this reassuring promise that the sleepy, recalcitrant brain will come round right if given time and a bit of caffeine. This makes tea a perfect complement to the morning sunlight (or rainy daylight) that coaxes us from sleep into another active day.

If tea is a testament to our craving for beauty, that must explain the exquisite loveliness of the china cups and saucers that are almost always the prettiest part of any table setting. Linens, pastries, silver flatware and even the tins or boxes in which many varieties of tea are packed, all call to us: today is a gift of rare attraction, if we will open our eyes and pay attention.

Whether you’re reading this in the morning, afternoon or evening, I’m not far from a cup of tea. So I lift my cup to you, as I have so many times. May today bring you something refreshingly wonderful.

This post was first published seven years ago today. Re-reading it, I’m amazed to realize that I have continued to pass so many years mostly in silence. Very little about daily life has changed for me, except that the grievous and unexpected loss of my dear sister, and then of my younger brother just one year later, have meant that I now talk even less than before they died.  

On reflection, I have to remind myself that I ‘ve accomplished quite a bit in those seven years, with very little help. I sold our York home, completing the arduous clearing out of 17 years accumulated possessions. I survived a catastrophic fall and two-year facial reconstruction, and nursed Matthew (literally, with round-the-clock infusions through a PICC line for six weeks) back from his closest brush with death so far. I’ve traveled far and wide, taking as many trips as I once did as a pilot’s daughter and later, as an airline employee myself. And this year, I completed my studies at Oxford University, where I hope to attend the diploma “awarding ceremony” (Oxford lingo for graduation) this spring. Yet my life remains mostly a hidden one, with solitude my accustomed state. And I love tea more than ever, and still drink it–  with diminishing levels of caffeine– from earliest morning until bedtime. Tea, reading, walking and writing are my great consolations at this stage of my life. Thanks for being here to provide online company!

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