tea ceremony

"The ceremony is a way of worshipping the beautiful and the simple. All one's efforts are connected on trying to achieve perfection through the imperfect gestures of daily life. Its beauty consists in the respect with which it is performed. If a mere cup of tea can bring us closer to God, we should watch out for all the other dozens of opportunities that each ordinary day offers us." -- Okakura Kakuzo, tea master, as told by Paulo Coehlo in Like the Flowing River.

One of the fascinating things about the Japanese culture is their Tea Ceremony. Remembering matcha from sophomore history class, the tea ceremony, although not exclusive to the Japanese, has always been a beautiful reminder of finding meaning in the ordinary things we do.

There was even this time when, out of sheer fascination of the practice, I came up with my own "ceremony"-- observing the same deliberately slow movement (minus the grace, i guess, i always lacked the gracefulness, haha) every time i prepared a cup of coffee. It was probably silly (now you can laugh at me...), but somehow, the message of the tea ceremony really stuck in my head when
I did that.

Whether we admit it or not, we always struggle to keep ourselves in one place. (I know I do not own the monopoly of the anxious-type A-personality). There is always something we need to do, or maybe we just think we need to do. More than trying to find meaning in our prosaic lives, keeping still or at least slowing down, must be something every person (especially those who are always frantic and those who seemed to spell their names with s-t-r-e-s-s, in uppercase) would be very fortunate to experience, no matter how seldom that chance comes by.

It is not to say that we should lethargically go about our daily grind, of course that is taking our sensibilities to the height of daftness (hehe i would've said depth of daftness, wouldn't you like the pun), but going back to what the tea master explained, the beauty of the ceremony lies in the respect with which it is performed.

Respect. What a rare gem in this huge minefield we call reality! How many of us can proudly declare if not to the world, at least to oneself, that he does things with respect, and by that, belief is sown deep in the simple activities he performs.

It could be refreshing, especially to one's spirit.

So probably, the next time we prepare our fave drink, whether it's just putting ice on soda, or opening the tab of an ice-cold beverage in can, we keep in mind, that these ordinary things we do can always find meaning if we only take time to appreciate its simplicity, and perhaps only then we can truly appreciate the bigger things, and be capable of even greater ones.