Your Life is Happening Now. (So Taste Your Tea, Dammit!)

Anyone who knows me at all knows that I'm a big fan of tea. Any kind of tea, really, but mostly green teas with subtle natural flavors like jasmine or mint. I find a cup of tea to be a relaxing way of curbing my cream-and-sugar-laden coffee habit.

I have a small iron teapot in my office that I use nearly every day to brew a pot of something. White ayurvedic chai is my favorite, but then there's samuarai chai mate, and snow leopard, and lung ching dragonwell... Let's just say that the folks at Peet's Tea and Teavana have my photo on their respective walls of fame.

Yesterday, while looking for a healthy snack at the local Target, I found myself stopping to pick up a box of Green Ginger tea (yes, I do realize I have a problem, thank you...). As soon as I got back to the office, I grabbed my mug, popped in a new bag of tea, and added the hot water. Seated back at my desk, I took the first sip of the brew while I jumped right back into the endless stream of emails on my screen.

And some time a few minutes later, it hit me: That sip of new and inspiring tea I took a few minutes back? I didn't event taste it.

Yikes! I was so busy doing my work, running on auto pilot, that I didn't even notice the flavor of the new fancy tea I'd just bought. I was totally distracted and unconscious!

Embarrassed, I sat back from my monitor and picked my mug back up. I took a moment to appreciate the mug, and the heat and aroma from the tea it contained. Then I took three long breaths, focused my attention, and slowly sipped my tea, savoring it first in my mouth and then feeling the warmth as it went down my throat.

Geeen tea, yes, But also strong ginger spice, lemongrass, and maybe a bit of pear.

How the hell did I miss all of that?

Pay attention. Your life is happening now.

Falling Into a Rhythm

My Stats To Date:
Push ups: 3,000
Crunches: 3,000
Miles: 27.5
Kata Reps: 65

Falling into a rhythm now — I'm really enjoying my morning routine in the park: Every morning at about 7:00am, there's a group of 60-70 year old Chinese women doing chi-kung exercises by the ballfield. There's usually 7 or 8 of them moving and talking togehter, and when I come along, they stop to fawn over my daughter while I do my crunches on the bleachers. I don't speak a word of Chiense, and they don't speak any English, but still communication is easy. (One morning last week, they even presented me with a package of teething buiscits for Ava — how sweet!)

There are other now-familiar faces in the early-morning, too:

I often spy a man and woman doing Yang-style tai chi (long form) together on the tennis courts. Their tai chi is beautiful and graceful (although their tennis is unforgivingly awful!) ; An older gentleman does kung fu by the tot-lot; still another man stands on the park green in silent, standing meditation. It's an interesing gathering of martial artists! Who knew?

There are others whom I see every morning, too: People on their way to work; a handful of dog walkers; A Russian man walking and doing calisthenics; kids enrolled in summer school pass by and wave or pet my dog while I do my push-ups.

I'm reading "Touching Peace" by Thich Nhat Hanh and enjoying it. Also reading "The Book of Tea" by Kakuzo Okakura. Reminds me of the ceremonies I attended with Master Kaji Aso at the House of Flower Wind before he passed away.