T

It starts with texture and sound

The feeling of unglazed clay on the fingertips

As the coarse scratch of the turning lid awakens memory.

The buttery smoothness of porcelain as cups take position.

The crunch of scooping up dry jade pearls

Is followed by the first aroma. Strong, encompassing, promising.

The boiling roar of water as the bubbles reach ‘cat eye-sized’

Then, effortless water meets glassy surfaces, like a river over granite.

Leafs which have longed for the element that completes them

Finally attain wholeness.

The scent rises on wafts of steam.

Qi is made visible and it carries memories of green hillsides.

Cloud-covered mountains rise as the life of the leaf 

Tells its story and asks us to bear witness.

All the body’s sensations; all thoughts; the entirety of a moment

Crystallizes and dissolves

As tea finds tongue.

Breath follows, time starts again.

Each cup stands unique as it seeks to encapsulate creation.