Backwoods Blog .133

TEA MIND

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

“on the stem” (photo by dave)

If you haven’t had a chance to check out additional content on the Backwoods Blog website, this week’s post is a plug to do so. In addition to the backwoods blog regular post (now at 133 and counting), you will also find poetry, journal entries, minister’s columns, an excerpt from “Ping Pong Zen” and a photo gallery. There is a convenient link included below in case you want to explore. You will notice that viewing the site works best on a laptop or desktop computer – portable devices to a lesser degree. Here is a sample from the minister’s columns menu tab titled “Tea Mind.” Have a good week everyone!

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There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
I look; morning to night I am never done with looking.
– from “Why I Wake Early” by Mary Oliver

Earlier this week I was drinking a cup of tea and happened to be reading the label on the side of the tea can. Isn’t it funny how your eyes automatically wander to anything with words on it? (I have memorized more cereal boxes in my lifetime than I care to admit.) In case you haven’t noticed, tea boxes and food tins have become quite philosophical lately. This particular can said, “Life is impossible and so what? It is in its very impossibility that we find our joy. The life of tea is the life of the moment. We only have Now, and we each sip it in our own cups.”

Life is so full and alive this time of year that it’s impossible to take it all in. The flowers are blooming, insects are active and the grass is growing faster than we can mow it! To lead a spiritual life is to be continually open to everything going on; in nature, in politics and in our own mind-space. That’s why it may seem like an impossible task. Yet, no effort is ever wasted in this kind of reflection. Mary Oliver says that, in spite of the odds against us, we need to keep reaching and keep looking. The immensity of the divine is all around us. It is moving beneath our feet, flying in the sky and waiting to be read about as we sit quietly enjoying a cup of tea…

Random quotes from Republic of Tea tins on a health food store shelf:

“Nature is unity, with forces working in from all sides. Those whose eyes are open to these manifest forces will be able to understand nature.” Rudolf Steiner; founder of Biodynamics

“The thing itself is one; the images are many. What leads to a perceptive understanding of the thing is not the focus on one image, but the viewing of many images together.” Rudolf Steiner

“Meanwhile,” suggests Kakuzo Okakura, our former Minister of Culture, “let us have a sip of tea. The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboos, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in the kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things…” The Minister of Leaves

“I am a partner with change, moving every moment to make union with all things. Nothing happens to me. Things happen.”Minister of Leaves

In the woods,

Dave

May 24, 2023