My sister got to our London hotel room before I did.
When I walked in, the Selefina Moon Milk packets were already laid out with two cups and wooden spoons. For a second, I thought they had come with the room.
Nope. My sister had brought them with her, just as planned. My heart melted when I saw them. Just, bless!
A month earlier, I had written that my new evening PIES ritual with Moon Milk would begin in London with my big, best sister. I had it all worked out. We would come back to the hotel, slow down, make our Moon Milk, check in with ourselves and close the day calmly.
That was adorable, yet London had other plans.
I walked in and thought the hotel had left them for us.
Our schedule was packed. We were out. We were walking. We were eating. We had places to be and people to see. There was American football involved. There was very little evidence that either one of us was going to return to that hotel room in the evening and suddenly become the women in a beautifully lit wellness commercial. And don’t forget: my Swede was with us.
So we didn’t. And this is where the ritual got more interesting. We took the Moon Milk to breakfast.
I know. Moon Milk. At breakfast. But I wasn’t trying to make myself sleepy before going out into London. I wanted the thing I was actually looking for when I started thinking about this ritual in the first place.
A pause. Something intentional. A little calm before the day got moving. And time with my sister.
So there we were at the hotel breakfast table with our plates, yogurt containers, water glasses, packets of Selefina and two cups of warm milk. Not styled. Certainly not particularly elegant.
Real life. We started with Golden Slumbers. We opened it. Smelled it. Looked at the color. Stirred it into the milk.
see Selefina’s
Moon Milk Trio
Then came Blue Lagoon. And goodness, that color.
This is one of the things I enjoyed most about the whole experience. Making the drinks became part of the pleasure. Opening the packet. Watching the powder hit the milk. Stirring it. Watching the color change. Smelling the spices. Passing a spoon back and forth. Comparing notes. Our waitress got into it as well. She warmed our milk.
The ritual wasn’t separate from breakfast. That was the ritual.
And our reviews were honest. There was no, “Mmmmm, this is DIVINE,” because my sister wouldn’t do that. Would I? No.
We smelled things. We questioned things. We looked up ingredients. We compared the two. We decided what we liked.
I think the biggest thing this London experiment taught me is I had been thinking about ritual too rigidly. Morning PIES with matcha. Evening PIES with Moon Milk.
Very tidy. Except life isn’t always tidy. Sometimes your evening ritual happens in the morning. Sometimes the beautiful wellness moment has dirty breakfast plates in the background. And sometimes the practice is simply recognizing:
This is where I can make room for calm today.
Not where I planned to find it. Where it actually fits. That feels much closer to the way I want to practice and teach mindfulness. I don’t need another routine that makes me feel as though I failed because I didn’t perform it at the correct time.
I need practices that can move with me. Travel with me. Sit down at a hotel breakfast table with me. And work inside the life I am actually living.
The Moon Milk itself was fun. Golden Slumbers gave us that warm golden color, while Blue Lagoon turned the milk an almost startling blue. Selefina describes Golden Slumbers as an earthy, turmeric based blend and Blue Lagoon as a softer floral spice blend colored by butterfly pea flower. Selefina
But what I will remember most isn’t which one was yellow and which one was blue.
It is sitting at breakfast in London with my sister. The packets she had carried over for me already waiting when I arrived, and the two of us stirring cups of brightly colored milk.
Talking. Laughing. Reviewing.
Starting another ridiculously full London day with a few minutes that belonged only to us. Turns out I did get my Moon Milk ritual with my sister. I just had the timing wrong.
And I think I like the real version better. I often try to manage every detail. All of them! No. More.
Watch our London Moon Milk ritual
If you want to try Selefina Moon Milk for yourself, they make Golden Slumbers, Blue Lagoon and Celestial Blush, including small portion sizes if you want to experiment before choosing a larger jar.
Disclosure: Selefina product was provided for review. The opinions, reactions and sister commentary are very much our own.