Happy New Year!

Hello, it's been a while.

2016

Goodbye to an eventful (and stressful) year and soooo thankful for my family and friends for being there!

2017

HELLO to a challenging new year!

I recently welcomed my second child, hence my absence from this space.  So aside from feedings, diaper changes, taking care of my first child, sleeping, and online Christmas shopping I haven't had a chance to think about this blog.  Actually I've thought about it lots, but haven't had a chance to post anything.

Looking back, I've had some great meals and glad to have read some interesting books.  I posted on tea a few times and that is where I've actually been spending most of my extra energy on these last couple of months. However, I don't know if it's because I'm not as focused or congestion for part of the time has muted my taste buds, but I haven't had the tasting experiences I've expected.

Only in the last two days, the last two days of the year, was there a glimmer of promise...

2017...looks to be a very promising year, for tea and I that is.

Yesterday I had a chance to re-read some passages in one of my tea books from Taiwan and there was an intro written by one of their well known tea experts/enthusiasts.  He summed up tea drinking or "the way of tea" with these 2 words:

歸零

The first word means "return or back to" and the second word is "zero", so essentially return to zero.  I took it to mean a reset in a way.  Every time you drink tea, the act, the experience is like a reset.  You spend the time to brew the tea and taste the tea, calming your mind and revitalizing yourself.  Even the physical change that the leaf goes through as you brew the tea mimics these words; the dry leaves unfurl with the heat of the water and what you end up with if using whole leaf tea is the shape and likeness of the leaf prior to the processing...a return back to the original state (somewhat).

In some ways, the end of the year and beginning of a new year for some is like a return to zero...you think about what you've done the past year, your successes and failures and then start to think about your future self.  How you may do things differently or plan new beginnings.  As I write this, I'm quite looking forward to 2017 as I focus on balancing the needs of my expanding family and challenges I plan to put upon myself.

Happy New Year!!