Western Tea Musing: My own hands hold the passage of time
This is a tea musing of a tea lady that travels East to West in circles transcending the physical boundaries drawn on the map of the Earth.
I dropped a goji berry
Into my morning tea
A vanity, curiosity just to see
How the crimson bullet gets weary
Swimming in the yellow sea
Present, so consumed by my cup of tea
I inhale nature brewed from the East to here
Pulling the porcelain ear up to my needy lips
Glaring into the tinted lake in front of me
Nasal memories draw landscapes in my eyes
Scents so rare, luring me to dive in, to dare
Exploring through mouth filled with a velvety whole
Soft like milk, less heavy, translucent, pure
Focused, yet dispensed into the ends without borders
Warm in my hands, cooled by time passing infinitely
~ Joy
My first encounter with Far East was through tea
The completeness I feel when mindfully savoring tea is priceless. Freeing my mind from any ensnaring emotions as in meditation levitates my soul. Another morning, this time on my beloved Como Lake where I enjoy each September the quieter side of late summer seasonal beauty, I brewed my tea in a Western porcelain meets silver service. A saucer, an ear-lobed cup, a silver spoon and a pot. I sat on the terrace by the shore and inhaled the wonders of being present. Blending the Eastern flavours I brought in a cherry wood box with local pure water and the divine air of the pre-alpine region luxuriated my existence.
In that monument, I dropped a goji berry into that cup as something within nudged me to do. Longing for exotic lands, traveling again to Asia after a long, involuntary break (since 2020 pandemic), reminded me of the Chinese custom of dropping the healthful goji berries into warm brews and soups. This trivial act awakened my curiosity and directed me deep into my present experience with the cup of tea that I sipped so slowly that it cooled before me finishing just that one cupful.
This happens rarely in our fast-paced urban lifestyles today, yet slowing down feels so wholesome and nurturing. I noticed time’s passing as an eternal stream in this short moment and realised it is all in my hands. My own palms hold my passage of time. The key that opens the gate of time is the deepening of awareness, expanding time and settling the mind at ease. My tea musing here puts into a poetic language the personal experience of this magic journey into boundless presence. I hope you find that space in between too.
The Equation of the Circle ~ O ~ follows from the Pythagorean theorem:
