Tea-Licious Skincare

Imagine a world of rolling green pastures illuminated by the golden rays of afternoon sunlight and lush fields of flowering crops as far as the eye can see, all surrounded by a comforting backdrop of towering mountain-tops in the distance. For Lorraine Cook, who spent her formative years on farmland in Africa, this was the life she knew best.

Lorraine, the youngest of four siblings, grew up on a 3,000-acre commercial farm. Her father cultivated food crops for both domestic and export consumption, and her closest neighbors were over 8 miles away. Lorraine and her siblings learned from an early age to appreciate all that they gained from the land on which they lived, and they enjoyed exploring the boundless wonder nature could bring.

But when Lorraine was just 6 years old, the world she once knew came crashing down as guerilla warfare erupted in her country, and isolated communities and farmland were often targets of brutal attacks. Lorraine recounts these tumultuous times, explaining that for 12 long years of her childhood, the family lived with a constant threat of land mines on the dusty farm roads surrounding her home, leading them rarely to risk venturing off the farm. The family found themselves tethered to the land surrounding them, depending on it as an indispensable food source and even offering glimmers of hope and a much-needed diversion to the growing children. “Our country endured worldwide sanctions, which meant toys were unheard of. Instead, we found joy in playing in the mud, using our little minds to create anything and everything we could imagine . . . and absorbed every detail about nature, as distractions were scarce,” she recalls.

As Lorraine aged, her connection with the land of Africa never faded, and she settled with her husband on their own farmland to raise a family, though they found themselves fleeing to the United States in 2000, as their homeland once again faced dangerous conflict. After years of re-establishing themselves, the Cooks were able to build a place for their family to call home, though the path was filled with challenges and self-doubt. One major obstacle Lorraine found herself facing was an injury from a routine procedure. While undergoing hip surgery, two (2-inch) screws inadvertently struck her spinal cord, leaving her disabled. After several surgeries, the doctors delivered the devastating news that the damage was too severe, and she would never walk again.

Along the road to recovery, she experienced countless tribulations and turned to self-care as a way to cope with trauma and heal from within. Lorraine explains, “What I learned through this is self-care is so much deeper than what we imagine it to be. It’s learning, on a daily basis, to value ourselves enough so, when we do face dire circumstances, we are mentally prepared to face them without self-pity or feeling victimized. Daily self-care, the small things, prepare us for that.”