Tea & Tranquility

“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 the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”
― Kakuzo Okakura, The Book of Tea

晴天の霹靂 - Seiten no heki-reki.The ritual is one known to Midori in its cadence, the natural rhythms taken as air is breathed. The garden has been prepared with the rocks raked to simple patterns and plants tended with each leaf in place. The way of chanoyu, is the same in its basics, though different for each practitioner.The air stirs the leaves under her feet as the woman takes graceful, short steps toward the door, which leads to the room prepared for this ritual. She kneels after pushing one foot backward, shoes abandoned at the entry with the socks silencing her movements. Her hands are rinsed in a plain, stone basin to her left before being dried on a cloth. The cleansing is everything. The bowl, scoop, and tea whisk are gathered as pieces of her past, each piece a reminder of other times. The tea powder pools in the cusp of the scoop before being added to the water. Heat, the bubbling of the liquid creates the beverage.