"The first cup moistens my lips and throat;
The second cup breaks my loneliness;
The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs;
The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores;
At the fifth cup I am purified;
The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.
The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.
Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither."
Lu Tung (Chinese poet during T'ang Dynasty) "Tea-Drinking"
"I long for Americans to be converted to simpler lives, simpler structures, and preservation of open space. But how do deep, radical conversions come about? Not because some righteous neighbor scolds about herbicide, but because one feels the relentless gnawing of one's own soul. Because one is spoken to by a little house or a great blue heron, or by the offhand remark of a happy person at peace with herself.
Some deep bell in the self reverberates to a bell struck outside. Anyone who comes to any level of ecological understanding has done so after a long internal process."
The Barn at the End of the World:
The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd
By Mary Rose O'Reilley
"In religion the Future is behind us. In art the Present is the eternal. The tea-master held that real appreciation of art is only possible to those who make of it a living influence. Thus they sought to regulate their daily life by the high standard of refinement which was obtained in the tea-room. In all circumstances serenity of mind should be maintained, and conversation should be so conducted as never to mar the harmony of the surroundings. The cut and color of the dress, the poise of the body, and the manner of walking could all be made expressions of artistic personality. These were matters not to be lightly ignored, for until one has made himself beautiful he has no right to approach beauty. Thus the tea master strove to be something more than the artist -- art itself. It was the Zen of aestheticism. Perfection is everywhere if we only choose to recognise it."
Kakuzo Okakura, The Book Of Tea
"Let us imagine a family table. Some of the people sitting at the table are blood relatives and some are family by choice. After all, what do we mean by family? We mean people who are deeply and lovingly connected to one another (for better and worse), people we can count on. In a pinch I can call my sister. I can also call on one of my close old pals who is related to me by bonds, and bonds can be every bit as strong as blood, just as blood can be much less consequential than a bond."
Laurie Colwin, More Home Cooking
"I believe we were all put here to discover our own truths and honor them to the fullest. I don't believe that man went through eons of evolutions to become lemmings or sheep. Each and every one of us has a unique spirit that is begging to be nurtured. Maybe nurturing that spirit would truly evolve our species."
Dan Price
Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life
"There is time for everything."
Thomas Edison
MY TEA TASTING TEAM
FOR BLOG & BOOK
TEA TASTERS BIOS
Rachel Kolb
Wilmington, NC
Alissa Barton
Texas
Iris Morrison
Bothell, Washington
Crys Mascarenas
Monte Vista, CO
Click on the graphic above to read our
Tea Tasters reviews. More reviews will
be arriving nearly daily!
TEA MEMORIES...
Click on the teacup in the picture
to go to a page of lovely stories
and memories of sharing tea
with loved ones, as well as a tea
adventure or two along the way!
And send us your tea stories too!
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"What is the most wonderful thing for people like myself who follow the Way of Tea? My answer: the oneness of host and guest created through 'meeting heart to heart' and sharing a bowl of tea...you feel one with nature, and there is peace... "
Soshitsu Sen XV, Tea Life, Tea Mind
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It is an utter delight!
"I am sorry to tell you that I am getting very extravagant & spending all my Money; & what is worse for you, I have been spending yours too."
~ On Tea & Shopping
Letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra,
18 April 1811
from Tea With Jane Austen by Kim Wilson
MAITRI'S LINKS
Dragonfly Cottage
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Dragonfly Cottage's Wabi Sabi World: A Cafe Press Store
"Another fine thing for the soul,
after a meal in the evening, is
one of those herbals teas which
French people used to call
tisanes.
They are simply hot water poured
over a few dried leaves of mint
or verbena or lime flowers or
camomile. They can be drunk
with or without sugar, and a
twist of lemon may be added.
They smooth out wrinkles in
your mind miraculously, and
make you sleep, with sweet
dreams too."
M.F.K Fisher
"How To Comfort Sorrow"
"Like Japanese art and poetry, the Tea Ceremony is delicate and lovely. While it appears fragile and simple, it is strongly symbolic and profound. In Japan devotees spend a lifetime in the study of Teaism with its manifold implications in religion and philosophy, in art and architecture, flowers, nature and personal deportment. Those proficient in the art and serving ceremonial tea are equal to whatever adventures and misadventures life may bring, as Teaism develops insight into Nature and Man."
The Japanese Tea Ceremony
Julia V. Nakamura, 1965
"Imagine you were given the assignment of making a rather bland, nearly ripe, just picked apricot as assertive and flavorful as it could possibly be. If you cut the apricot in pieces, set it out in the sun to blacken, bring it inside and spray it with a fine mist of water, and repeat this procedure, then cut it up in smaller pieces, mash them, sliver them, and twist and roll them, and finally squish and pack them, you would produce some version of a dried apricot that has a lot more flavor than a fresh one. This, in the broadest of terms, is what turns a green tea leaf into a black tea.
"When freshly boiling water pours over these twisted, rolled-up leaves, all that stored up flavor is released. The swirling and writhing of the leaves mark the moment when this happens. This moment is called the agony of the leaves. The plantation owners and workers, packers, buyers, shippers, and tea people the world over wait for this crucial moment when tea comes back to life."
Helen Gustafson, The Agony Of The Leaves
The Cup Of Humanity From
THE BOOK OF TEA,
by Kakuzo Okakura
"Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, It entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism -- teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of social order. It is essentially the worship of the imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life."
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All contents copyright 2006
Maitri Libellule
... since January 1, 2006
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Monday, November 13, 2006
HAVING EVERYTHING, OR HAVING A GOOD CUP OF TEA?
A cup of tea full of everything: Gingerbread Cream Tea - LE ... From SBS Teas...
"We didn't think it was possible to improve on the perfection of last year's Gingerbread tea, but the tea Genie has outdone herself again. Gets the blood moving to keep you moving. Warms from the center of your being; ginger and spice with a smooth creamy note. Perfect alone or pop those flavors with some cream and sugar! If you love our other holiday teas, you will find this yet another you must have in your tea repertoire!
This is a LE-Limited Edition Tea only available through the holidays, be sure to stock up on yours today!"
"There must be more to life than having everything."
Maurice Sendak
There must be more to life... Indeed.
As I sit in my little cottage, birds chirping, singing, and talking all around me, a dog at my side, and holding a doll in my hands that I am making, my steaming cup of tea beside me, I think, in an inside out version of Sendak's quote, that the reason I am so happy and at peace here is that I don't have "everything" in the world's terms. I have a darling little 12 year old mini-mini van that is a very peculiar shade of green that's bleached out by the sun and whose paint job is going funky with a license plate that says WABISABI, and I love that little PeaMobile with all my heart. My vehicle is wabi sabi as surely my whole life is, and coming to terms with all of that, all of ME, all of my life, is worth more than gold. And I wonder, I truly wonder, if the wealthy who do have everything are ever as happy as I am with a grey parrot singing and talking and a soft velvet nose resting on my toes as I have my cup of tea...
A couple of nights ago I had the most wonderful soothing tea, the Gingerbread Cream, Limited Edition mentioned above. It was like comfort in a cup. It spoke of holidays and gingerbread boys with icing on the top. It spoke of roaring fires in a fireplace with snow falling softly outside the frosty windowpanes, it spoke of sugar and spice and everything nice with a dollop of cream to boot! This is a comfort tea. It has everything.
And so I sit, as I type this, with Henry, my grey parrot, on my forearm, bobbing up and down with the movement of my typing, and I lean down and give him a kiss on the beak and smile at this darling bird, my soul mate, and I want to make more of this divine tea right now. I wish I had some gingerbread cookies to go with it, happy little boys with icing faces. This tea brings me joy and the delight of walking into a house where warm gingerbread cookies are cooling on a rack and the whole house is redolent of fragrant spices. It is the simple pleasures, after all, that bring the most contentment, and an inner peace
Look for joy in the simple things in life. Realize that you have everything there is to have in this very moment and appreciate it all. Look into your cup of tea and realize that we have everything in each and every moment that we need, if only we have eyes to see. Tomorrow we may have more and that will be perfect too. But for today we have our tea, perhaps a parrot on our shoulder, a dog at our side, and I can't imagine wanting anything more.
Blessings to each and every one of you as the holiday season approaches, and always...
Maitri
Posted at 03:56 pm by maitri
 | | | Sarah
December 2, 2006 06:56 PM PST
Maurice Sendak is my all-time favorite author/illustrator. Good choice for quotes!! | |
| | | leslie
November 18, 2006 09:23 AM PST
It took me DAYS after receiving this post in my inbox to get around to reading it. Why? Because I read it the moment was MEANT to. I am just sitting here in a few quiet moments on a blazingly sunny morning after more than a week of dreary dark rainy days. Sitting in the moment, feeling the essence of everything around me in this perfect moment of home, family, animal friends and the love in everything that surrounds me. With one click, your beautiful perfect post is before. Thank you Maitri, as always. | |
| | | Name
November 14, 2006 04:53 PM PST
I've discovered the joy of finches. We have a pair of zebras named Frig & Frag. . . they had twins, grey & fawn, named Zig & Zag, and one pure white one. . . now they are nesting again to produce more sweet chirping mewing babies, and we are delighting in the abundance of the simple pleasure of their chirps. HuGz to you, Jomaine | |
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