Green tea and Inspiration

I had tea with the truly lovely Dr. Sherri Magee at South Granville's T Tasting Boutique. It was a treat to visit with her as I greatly admire Dr. Sherri's amazing work helping cancer survivors with the emotional recovery process port treatment.

"Many survivors speak of feeling fragmented and needing to pick up the pieces of their lives once treatment for cancer is finished. Exhausted, overwhelmed with fears of recurrence, struggling to manage the side effects of treatment, and trying to make sense of the experience, survivors feel as if they have been ‘dropped into a void’, unsure of how to navigate through the recovery process. While the focus of treatment is on eliminating the disease, the recovery phase is centered upon healing the whole person. But no guideline exists for how to make it through this period, there is no bridge from hospital to home."


Dr. Sherri does a workshop that helps cancer survivors move from this fragmentation towards living the life they want to live. She is also the co-author of the book Picking Up the Pieces: Moving Forward After Surviving Cancer. Recommended reading for anyone who is finishing cancer treatment and on their way to a "new normal".




I brought Dr. Sherri one of my recent pieces from the "Texture and Variations" series that she had spotted on the Studio V Open House invite last December. The artwork is created from salvaged and recycled wood discarded at building sites and so it has that nice ancient treasure/modern relic look that I love. As I sipped the aromatic Pear Tree Green tea blend and conversed, I felt that I was experiencing a very serendipitous meeting indeed.

***

"In my own hands I hold a bowl of tea; I see all of nature represented in its green color.
Closing my eyes, I find green mountains and pure water within my own heart.
Silently, sitting alone, drinking tea, I can feel these become part of me.
Sharing this bowl of tea with others, they too, become one with it and with nature.
That we can find a lasting tranquility in our own selves in company with each other is the paradox that is the Way of Tea."

"The frenzied world and our myriad dilemmas leave our bodies and minds exhausted. It is then that we seek out a place where we can have a moment of peace and tranquility. In the discipline of Chado such a place can be found. The four principals of harmony, respect, purity, and tranquility, codified almost four hundred years ago, are timeless guides to the practice of Chado. Incorporating them into daily life helps one to find that unassailable place of tranquility that is within each of us."

Soshitsu Sen
Urasenke Grand Tea Master XV
From Urasenke Tradition of Tea

Sweet Surrender or "The Mutant Squirrel started it"

Blogging was not something I was aspiring to.

To whom would I be addressing these "posts" anyway? I am generally not a "sharer". I don't have very many close friendships. I do write cryptic, stream-of-consciousness poetry that would probably be considered quite mediocre... unless perhaps it was discovered to be composed by some underground beatnik revolutionary. Or maybe a trendy modern starlet, "Who knew she was this DEEP?"

Last year Thor showed me an article that argued how Google searches, blogs and community websites are ways that we are letting ourselves be tracked by powerful conglomerates/illuminati that want to sell us stuff and/or restrict our freedom to buy stuff... or something. It sounded bad. But then I thought about how I always agree to answering telemarketing/research companies questions; in part so that they will actually find out what really is important to some of us. Maybe they will eventually stop over packaging over-rated useless things (bought any kids TOYS lately?)

But I digress. It is Earth Day.

So back to the squirrel.

About a week ago I was looking longingly into the back 40 when along the fence came a-hopping, a squirrel that seemed vaguely familiar except for the fact that he was half-NAKED. I mean that he was top-less -- fur-less in his upper squirrelitudes to be exact. My jar dropped and my brow furrowed. And I wondered... the usual wherefore and how tos. And then I realized that short of canvassing the neighborhood with the sad mutant squirrel story, I would never know exactly what had happened to him. I can surmise that he may have been carried gently to a local veterinarian after a serious pet attack, Fido's owner feeling guilty enough to have Squirrel patched up and released back into the 'hood.

But the point of the tail, er... tale, is merely this; funny, weird, little things happen and big important things happen every day. What we experience daily and what we hear on the news all add up to life on earth. All these stories deserve to be told in one way or another. Why not muse into cyberspace about the juxtaposition of the ridiculous and the sublime... I argue that some day we may not know which is which.