Profound Thoughts on Tea

This isn't an update and doesn't really have anything to do to with anything...but I felt like writing anyways.


I'm in the middle of reading this book, 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog'. It was first recommended to me by someone who's suggestions have never failed to astound over the past five years. It was largely because of him that I rediscovered the magic that is the written word. It took me two years to actually get to this book though...and for many reasons (mainly relating to the insanity that is this program) I have had to restart this book four times.....


I came across a particular section today that absolutely blew me away...I was left with no choice, but to share it. An entire page was devoted to the act of tea drinking, but here is my favorite part:


'When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things. Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?
The tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accession to simple, authentic and refined sensations, a license given to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealth and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony. Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us. then let us drink a cup of tea. Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light. And, with each swallow, time is sublimed.'

Any living being who could describe the act of tea drinking as something not unlike a profound spiritual experience is an absolute genius...


For those who know me well, tea , specifically Ceylon Orange Pekoe, is for me, much what breath is for the body. I cannot go through the day without my tea fix. Lately I've been drinking at least four cups in a day...and often I will not be able to sleep without my last cup. I've never given much thought to it before. But reading this, the author could not have expressed this addiction of mine any more articulately. Especially the bit about the world aspiring to vacuousness, lost souls mourning beauty, and being surrounded by insignificance.....that's a pretty good summary of how I've been feeling lately...but before I am able to sit and think about it...I go to my cup of tea. And when that mug is in my hand, and I have taken that first sip...I am one step closer to being at peace with the world.


This isn't a regular blog entry, but it still deserves a song I say.
In keeping with the theme of serenity, here's some music that achieves much the same result, but through another means.


Sigur Rós needs no introduction. 
This particular song is called: Með Suð Í Eyrum (translated: With a Humming in Our Ears)




Goodnight.