Tea Bag Theology.

My favorite tea is Good Earth Decaf. Green Tea [it's got pinapple, mango and peach in it, too]. I'm drinking some now with a little Truia and soy milk. It's blissful. One thing I like so much about Good Earth tea is that the little tags have quotes on them. Usually they're as cliche as a fortune cookie, but this morning mine caught me:

"Grief shared is half grief. Joy shared is double joy."

Isn't that true? I think we've lost the art of sharing grief; the discipline of grieving has eluded my generation. A girl on my sister floor was screaming the other night and no one really knew why. I overheard her explaining herself later. "That's what we do in black culture," she said. "That's how we grieve." Why? Why is it that she screams and I sit silent, bottled up and tucked inside myself?

I have once been privaled to share grief well with another. My dear friend Bethany mourned a few weeks ago. And I got to be with her. This typically non-physical touch girl let me hold her; usually accustomed to her own space and control, she let me speak truth to her and cry with her. Yes, grief shared is half grief.

Also today, I discovered my friend is engaged! Her boyfriend proposed on Friday and I was a slow one in finding out. I squealed and almost dropped my plate of food. I'm delighted, not just because I know this is something she's been waiting for but because this enters a new season in their lives. This time, together. Yes, joy shared is double joy.

Maybe I'm just too pensive. Who knows. But for good or for ill, I've taken me a piece of theology from a tea bag quote.