Anew Day and Winter Sore Throat Tea

"Sore Throat Tea"http://catherineboley.blogspot.com/2009/08/preparing-for-winter.html

Invention, imagination, fun products... that was the draw to the retailer for which I worked for six years. There was more than one occasion in which a customer said that it was my enthusiasm, not so much the product, that closed the sale. Enthusiasm is contagious.

My brother had vision and joy about invention when we were kids. He'd pick a bicycle out of somebody's garbage, fix the chain, the tires, paint it, change the seat and turn it into a work of art. It was no longer garbage, but a customized bicycle.

Back then, preparation for New Years Eve entailed the set up of horns and whirring noisemakers for eleven people. Mom and Dad built a stockpile of junk food for the celebration. We were excited that for a change, we could make as much noise as possible, even if we had to wait until midnight.

As I grew older, New Years became, well, negative. I was unsure if I had just grown more attentive to the dialogue that surrounded the partying, or if the party had changed. Certainly there had been some painful experiences that included Mom's illness.

Leading up to negative New Years, there was a review on the radio and among those I knew of, not just songs, but each sad or distressing episode that spanned an entire decade.

By the age of about seventeen or eighteen, midnight contained pressure, as in the serious business of getting rid of a number, a year, and there was extreme expectation that the next not be as bad. If something unfortunate happened in January, a bad tone was set for the next eleven months.

When I grew into an adult and had experienced sufficient New Years and strokes of midnight, I decided that tracking time was not as relevant as a daily do-over, a new beginning and opportunity to join the land of the living, as my sister put it.

January 1st became a change of the calendar, and like any other day, a new beginning, an opportunity to recreate, turning a scrap of proverbial garbage into a work of art.

That said, I would like to wish all of my friends a very blessed new day! And since a few of my friends have said that they have a sore throat, I would like to share this recipe that I came across in the hope that it will help you heal.

Winter Sore Throat Tea

In a jar, combine lemon slices, organic honey and sliced ginger. Close the jar and put it in the fridge. It will form into a "jelly".

To serve: Spoon jelly into mug and pour boiling water over it. Store in fridge 2-3 months