Tea Time with Kelsey McGregor

Don’t you love when life has a mind of its own? Maybe don’t answer that. I had every intention of releasing my website about a month ago, but life had other ideas in mind.

Namely getting into the community garden, building the 15 foot by 15-foot plot by hand with the help of my family, hauling in loads of dirt. I calculated it and I think there is something like 40 wheelbarrows full and it looks like it’s only about 75% full compared to the rest of the plots but who is comparing? Planning seedlings to put into the garden, getting distracted and killing all but one seedling that I started from scratch which in all irony is a pepper plant which I have such a troublesome time starting for some reason. Getting sick, getting seedlings in the ground, trying to stay ahead of my sickness and then succumbing to needing to get help from a prescription of amoxicillin. A lot has unfolded and a lot that zapped my creative energy. Just to name a few low-key happenings.

But I’m back!

Today marks an end and a new beginning. An end to taking amoxicillin prescription. A week where I lay flat on my back for most of it attempting to sit up and do some work in between hacking fits.

I cannot remember the last time I needed over the counter medication to control a bad cold. (Minus COVID but we will save that discussion for a rainy day when the algorithms aren’t paying attention and I need to rile a few of you up.) Life doesn’t necessarily go as planned and that is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. Pun intended. Nonetheless, this release is happening regardless of it being a little later than initially planned.

It also sparks the beginning of this blog. The release of my Lady Whistledown era laden with juicy goss about how I killed my latest plant, foraged a food, crafting, furniture upholstery projects and the latest antics from Fletcher, our whoodle, my quest for finding good gluten free options on a budget, grocery savings, ridiculously Canadian things and so much more as well as what this past year and a half has and continues to teach me.

A year and a half ago, I stepped away from a role as it was too much. Too much for me at the time and one day I came home to my husband and announced I needed a change. I needed to be selfish for a hot minute and I couldn’t articulate it at the time, but in hindsight, it was probably the best decision I have made in a long time. Including our needs in the equation is often perceived as selfishness but you cannot feed a plant from an empty cup.

Nevertheless, within that timeframe, I needed to figure out what came next. It dawned on me that I should write. And that I did. And I walked dogs to get fresh air. I did that while the weather was nice. I would like to admit that the writing happened on the cozy rainy days when I was cooped up inside, but it actually came at the most unexpected times which in and of itself is a content bucket of its own which I will dive into at a later date.

But there I stood looking at my husband, daring to announce that need for a change. Articulating that I didn’t know what the future held but that I am here for it. Willing to show up for it in every way possible. In that moment, an interesting thing happened.

My husband Wayne got this look in his eye that will always stay with me until the day I die, or I lose my ability to remember – whichever comes first. It beckoned a sense of relief. As if to say, there she is. There is the woman I decided to marry. He took my announcement like a champ and has been my biggest cheerleader the whole way through. For this, I am eternally grateful.

Not only just him, but my people in general, the gratitude overflows and I don’t just say that you know who you are. You’ve listened, you’ve championed, you’ve been assertive and told me like it is when I need to hear what is what. And yet at the end of the day you take my hair brained schemes in stride regardless of whether or not it is pure madness or genius.

A lot has happened in the last year and a half. There is a lot to unpack. But here we are, with boxes surrounding us the only things unpacked are the teacups and the latest tea from a faraway land also known as my head. If you’re up for the journey out of this maze I’m fully prepared to unpack things, but it won’t be all at once. I’ve left thing in this state for far too long. I’m finally crawling out of this cocoon. Maybe because I wasn’t prepared for the vulnerability that it takes to just air what’s going in life, or something more nefarious that I should unpack with my therapist but either way, it’s interesting how sometimes the biggest challenges are often the simplest and once they are done, you think, that wasn’t so bad.

Whatever that thing is in your life, I strongly urge you to take it on. There are days where I look at the sheer magnitude of what I need to accomplish and paralysis of analysis sets in. It’s okay to have those days. It’s what you do the next day when you have the energy, when the schedule opens up, when you somehow have that extra minute to pour into the greatness known as yourself. Because you are grrrrreat. Just like Tony the tiger…let him take up space in your head for a moment. What are you going to do with that moment?

Go on, ask yourself.