October tea

 

~ this post is dedicated to my Momma Donna ~

Monday, October 2nd: I feel drawn to have my tea in a teacup and saucer that was handed down to me by my grandmother. The saucer is broken in several places from my various moves along the east coast, yet I continue to take delight in the sweetness of knowing that it was once delicately held by my dear grandma. Turning to my morning reading, EVERYDAY SACRED by Sue Bender, I open to a random page and my eyes rest on the following....
 

OCTOBER TEA

One day, in search of something else, I found a book called Wabi Sabi. Wabi sabi are the Japanese words for a feeling, an aesthetic that is hard to describe. I read:
 

Wabi sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

It is a beauty of things modest and humble. 

It is a beauty of things unconventional.


A friend, a student of the Japanese tea ceremony, mentioned “October tea.” She said it’s one of the most important times of the year for tea, the most wabi. November celebrates the new tea, but October is the time to use up the last of the old. Instead of letting it dribble out, or be though of as the dregs— “We cherish what remains of that which is in the process of passing.”

This month only, mismatched dishes are used. The utensils are ones that have been broken and repaired. “Not just repaired, but carefully and beautifully mended,” she added.

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As I contemplate that which is in the process of passing, I am inspired to pull out my paints and let my brush dance along the mended lines of the broken saucer and around its faded rim.

I reflect on the beauty (and challenge) of the process of mending.....of relationships, of a broken heart, of dreams deferred or unrealized, of the slow and careful process of loving deeply.


Grief and Joy.

Grief and Joy.

Grief and Joy.


photo: me