Anthony had always wanted to be a free spirit. He’d heard the term many years earlier and had written it down in his daily planner, both underlining and circling those enticing words. At the time he’d thought that breaking his own conventions and heavily underlining anything in his book was rather bold – but, as he was completing his audit on his filing cabinet, and discarding documents which had expired the seven year legal requirement, he found himself staring at these words, feeling anything but bold.
Having been confronted with this revelation, he immediately sought out comfort and prepared himself a cup of tea. In preparing it, he carefully unfolded the teabag from the box and filled his cup with the boiled water, and then he paused. Anthony had begun to realise the necessity of change in his life, if he would ever become a free spirit. He went back to his pantry and removed the sugar, and taking one heaped teaspoon, stirred it into his cup. His mother had always warned him of the dangers of sugar, and he felt quite triumphant as he took the beverage to his lips. And, as the cup lingered on the precipice, his hand began to quiver. How could he become someone else so casually? All his life he had believed in the importance of his own rigid planning and routines – and now, as he found himself on the verge of drinking danger, he felt uncertain.
Anthony put the tea down on the kitchen bench, and as his mind frenzied he paced back and forth in his kitchen. Increasingly, however, he had to slow down, as he had noticed a spill on the floor and found the compulsion to stop and wipe it up unbearable, even in his distress. Eventually, however, his breathing slowed and he stood before the cup of tea. His mother had always told him the best way to approach any difficult task was to be methodical and to work through a process. Her words calmed him further and he put in place a plan.
It was, as you might expect, a fairly straightforward plan. He would take the cup by the handle, raise it to his mouth and take a sip. On this third step, he wavered between taking a large gulp and the sip, but felt the momentous task ahead of him demanded a risk-management approach which favoured minimising risk. He justified the sip on the grounds of safety, given the potential of the hot water to cause injury. As far as a measure of significant risk went, this was to be Anthony’s most threatening activity he had engaged in throughout the entirety of the day.
And then he decided it was time to embrace the new-him, and that he would do it quickly now, lest he would find an excuse to back-out. He picked up the cup in a deliberate manner, and began to raise it to his mouth. Of course, he did not raise it too quickly, as he did not want to have to clean up a further spill that an overly enthusiastic flourish of the hand may have led to. The cup neared his lips and he brought his head slightly forward to take his sip.
And he did it. The tea then was in his mouth, and it was then that Anthony realised he had not put in place a fully developed plan. He had perhaps assumed that once the tea had gone in, he would naturally want to swallow. But the hesitation remained and doubt began to creep over him. Was it enough that he simply took the tea to his lips? Was that enough to have emboldened his spirit forever? Did he need to swallow?
The answer to that final question, he knew, was an affirmative. He swallowed.
What happened next was nearly automatic. Not being used to drinking sweet beverages, the taste overwhelmed Anthony completely. His face scowled and he tipped the remainder of the cup into the sink, running the tap and using the sponge on the sink to make sure no residue remained. And as the sink returned to a state of cleanliness, Anthony felt satisfied. Today, he told himself, he had become a free spirit.
He walked back into his office, opened up his daily planner, and at the bottom of the day’s checklist, he wrote in, ‘Become a free spirit’, and with a sense of satisfaction, he ticked off this item as complete, proud of his achievement. He had dared to become a new person; dared even to defy his mother’s warning. He had put sugar in his tea, and now his life was sweeter.