Another Pot O' Tea — Donna Hopkins

One summer, when my son Jacob was about 10 years-old (around 2007) , he helped me work on a scrapbook. Or maybe he was working on his own scrapbook. All I can recall for certain is that he spent hours in our dining room turned craft studio making something. Colorful card stock, stickers, glue, scissors, hole punches, do-dads and lots of colored pens.

I was determined to complete a family photo album. I’ve always had a hard time working to music (I usually require silence for deep work), but that summer, I found something that soothed my spirit as I worked. A compact disc player and an old CD by Anne Murray. We must have listened to that CD over fifty times, and one song, Another Pot O’ Tea, stuck in our heads forever. (The song Another Pot o' Tea was written by Paul Grady and was first recorded and released by Anne Murray in 1974.) I can’t say why the song stuck for Jacob, only that he still recalls it to this day. But for me, the song will always remind me of that sweet time when your children are connected to you like your hand is connected to your arm. An extension of you—so exquisite that you cannot imagine your life without it. This is the phase of child development when children think the sun rises and sets in their mother, before they begin the necessary work of separating from their parents. I can picture the scene. I feel the warm breeze coming in the window. I hear Anne Murray’s soft melody. Mother and son working side-by-side in harmony. It’s a beautiful memory. Put on another pot o’ tea.