As my friend Maharlika illustrated to me in precious moments sitting with her and tea, we have but one moment, one chance. Tea helps us to receive the moment and to be with it as fully as we are able to.
With tea, the elements come into play. The subtlety of the steam rising. The dance of a perfect piece of music. The sound of water filling a pot. The smell of leaves being wetted for the first time in many moons, sometimes in many years, and in a very special tea sit, sometimes in many decades.
Imagine that ability to be there and listen to the leaves waking up. To feel earth returning to itself through the activation of hot spring water.
With the senses alive and the elements dancing with them, we become open to another world of perception. Sometimes when the aloes wood incense drifted past my nose, it would stir a memory of the first time tea entered my heart, on an island in the Salish sea, listening to a song for Tara, drinking a gateway to spirit purple tea in the early morning dawn hours in a yurt by the garden, where zinnias and sunflowers bloomed and I found something I forgot, like a portal to sit with an ancient grandmother, and without a word she brought me back to my heart and my medicine.
Sitting with Maharlika was like this too. I would feel my roots grow deeper into the earth. When she looked at me as she slowly turned the tea bowl in the direction of my heart I felt an eternal wisdom pour from her eyes. And I felt seen in a way that was rare in these times, and because of the presence of the elements I could not hide. And a shroud of a veil of separation drifted slowly and delightfully to the floor in front of me. Letting go never felt so good. The spaciousness to simply Be there in the moment. To know that it was precious in that it existed and that I could be present to know this. To watch the steam rise. To breathe with the bowls as they emptied and filled, as they moved in toward her and back out to us.
Now as she has returned to spirit form, I turn to these special times where I sat with her. When my senses were opened, when I was soaking in the gifts that she gave so freely. I can see clearly the transmission she gave me, to be bathed in her practice and presence, so that I could know such an elemental dance, so that I could share that one moment, one chance, with you.