Monday, November 22, 2010

Holding Space for Rituals: Tea and Friends

Tea Time. Tea Ceremonies. Tea Sipping. Tea Sharing. Tea Caring. 

Hot liquids in the summer are not enticing. But come Stick Season when the days are cold and darkness takes over earlier and earlier, Tea Time comes back in full style. I LOVE Tea Time. 
My mom was kind enough to include me in an abbreviated Tea Time, or Green Tea Ceremony that the Chinese still use today when drinking Green Tea. Sacred Green Tea! 
To get the detailed steps of the Green Tea Ceremony, please click the link above. 
The Green Tea Ceremony does include preheating the little tea cups with hot water, soaking the Green Tea leaves in hot, but not boiling water in an unglazed clay pot, sniffing the Green Tea after it has been poured into your little tea cup three times (which is said to help improve and promote respiratory health), and then finally, sipping the tea in three gulps. 
It is a lovely, albeit time consuming way to drink tea. Make time for it. Sharing experiences like these are the lines inbetween...
Try it with friends. Try it with partners. Make a ritual of sharing warmth and healthy, hot liquids.  We are lucky enough to have a tea house in Burlington, VT that carries a variety of Green Teas. Have a Tea Ceremony with a friend at Dobra Tea. Celebrate Stick Season!

2 comments:

  1. Does Dobra help facilitate the ceremony or are you on your own?

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  2. I'm guessing you are on your own. I know they have a variety of Green Teas, which is the key...I'll have to check out the details and get back to you.

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