I've been fortunate enough today to be sick. All too often, I find that only when I'm sick do I take the time to read, meditate or simply do nothing. Only when I'm forced to do I really take it all in, and with each passing year, there seems more to "take in". So, what with this being the last day of the year, my recounting the past and mentally sowing the seeds of what I'd like to see happen in the future, my ponderances are in line with the rest of the world's people who are doing the same.
In terms of this blog, had you told me a year ago that I would have a blog, a Yahoo Group and vision for a company all based on the concept of tea, I would have looked at you oddly. Much like Emperor Shen Nong who was just boiling water and created tea by accident, the same has happened to me. I never that tea would be something significant in my life, I discovered it on accident...or rather, in both cases, tea found the person, not the other way around.
I love that I have no idea where this ride is going....all I know is that this ride is far from done. Those who know me personally know that I have a grand awareness and exhuberence for all things Random. I guess that's why the myth of how tea was "discovered" resonates with me. There was some person, boiling water in the forest...probably making some rice or something (funny how no one ever questions what his orginal purpose for boiling water near a tree was) and then randomly a leaf fell into the water and Voila! TEA was born.
The theories and philosophy of all things Random ruled my life for a very significant part of my life. I still smile inside someone says that word as if they have uttered the magic word (only no duck comes down with $100). I have been out of touch otherwise with the Random life, which takes everything that happens with an awareness that nothing is truly random and that all things that seem random should be embraced positively. Had the Emperor quickly yanked the leaves out of the pot what would we all be drinking 4800 years later? While it would have been deemed a normal reaction to extract the fallen debris out of the rice water in order to continue with what he expected to do, he embraced the unexpected.
So, with that I leave you all to celebrate your day, your year, your life and maybe over your favorite cup of tea you'll take a moment to consider the wisdom passed onto you from the Emperor's example. Embrace the unexpected.
Happy New Year
Randomly,
Madam Potts
December 31, 2005
December 28, 2005
My Cup Runneth Over
and over and over....
Ack! I never thought I'd say this, but I have waaaaay too much tea!
Between buying loose herbs, not finishing what I had already, receiving more tea under the Christmas tree and being gifted a HUGE box of random tea samples, I need help!
I coudn't throw it away, but I have a feeling I may not be able to give it all away!
If you would like to help me off-load some of this bountious amount of tea in my kitchen, please let me know....no...really...I'm not kidding....
I know I like to brew mad pots of tea, but this is sheer madness!
Anyone for Tea?
Ack! I never thought I'd say this, but I have waaaaay too much tea!
Between buying loose herbs, not finishing what I had already, receiving more tea under the Christmas tree and being gifted a HUGE box of random tea samples, I need help!
I coudn't throw it away, but I have a feeling I may not be able to give it all away!
If you would like to help me off-load some of this bountious amount of tea in my kitchen, please let me know....no...really...I'm not kidding....
I know I like to brew mad pots of tea, but this is sheer madness!
Anyone for Tea?
December 24, 2005
Warm Holiday Wishes
Twas the day before Christmas and all through the house, not a teapot was steeping, because I had traveled home for the holidays.
I am not sure where I developed my fondness for tea, but it sure wasn't from my family. But there are lots of differences...case and point - I live in The City [NYC] and going "home" is a travel 4+ hours upstate and west....
Having had the resources to avoid the recent transit strike I hadn't spent any time home and so I could not arm myself with tea to go. I sure hope there's some loose tea under the tree!
I made it very, very easy this year for my family to figure out what I wanted if they wanted to gift me some tea. Although I did that last year too yet they still decided that somehow or another I would prefer black tea - flavored black tea at that.
But that's why MAD POTS and CITY SIPPERS will be starting up the January 2006 White Elephant Tea Swap. So stay tuned for more details on that...
And no matter how you celebrate, I wish you all the perfect blend of love.
Warmly,
Madam Potts
I am not sure where I developed my fondness for tea, but it sure wasn't from my family. But there are lots of differences...case and point - I live in The City [NYC] and going "home" is a travel 4+ hours upstate and west....
Having had the resources to avoid the recent transit strike I hadn't spent any time home and so I could not arm myself with tea to go. I sure hope there's some loose tea under the tree!
I made it very, very easy this year for my family to figure out what I wanted if they wanted to gift me some tea. Although I did that last year too yet they still decided that somehow or another I would prefer black tea - flavored black tea at that.
But that's why MAD POTS and CITY SIPPERS will be starting up the January 2006 White Elephant Tea Swap. So stay tuned for more details on that...
And no matter how you celebrate, I wish you all the perfect blend of love.
Warmly,
Madam Potts
December 16, 2005
Boston Tea party
Today isn the 232nd Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.
I much prefer drinking it to sending it into the briny deep, but the colonists were standing up for their rights and holding to their principles in the face of what they felt was an injustice. I admire their courage and spirit. Taking action against unfair trade practices which were made lawful by the Tea Act of 1773. Tea Act of 1773 gave the East India Tea Company the right to export its merchandise directly to the colonies without paying any of the regular taxes that were imposed on the colonial merchants, who had traditionally served as the middlemen in such transactions. With these privileges, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. To protest this Act, the colonists, led by Samuel Adams staged quite a dramatic resistance.
As the electrifying news of the Boston "tea party" spread, other seaports followed the example and staged similar acts of resistance of their own.I had written a small entry last month on this topic called Revolutionary.
So, kick back and enjoy a cup of history.
I much prefer drinking it to sending it into the briny deep, but the colonists were standing up for their rights and holding to their principles in the face of what they felt was an injustice. I admire their courage and spirit. Taking action against unfair trade practices which were made lawful by the Tea Act of 1773. Tea Act of 1773 gave the East India Tea Company the right to export its merchandise directly to the colonies without paying any of the regular taxes that were imposed on the colonial merchants, who had traditionally served as the middlemen in such transactions. With these privileges, the company could undersell American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade. To protest this Act, the colonists, led by Samuel Adams staged quite a dramatic resistance.
As the electrifying news of the Boston "tea party" spread, other seaports followed the example and staged similar acts of resistance of their own.I had written a small entry last month on this topic called Revolutionary.
So, kick back and enjoy a cup of history.
December 15, 2005
December 08, 2005
Baby, It's Cold Outside
It's cold. Well, considering it's December...that comes as no surprise. And besides fluffy socks, my favorite thing about the winter is steamng mugs of delicious beverages. When I wake up, when I get to work, when I get home, before bed, walking down the street - in fact there isn't a time that I don't want a cup of something hot.
I tend to be an equal opportunity drinker and can enjoy any variety of temperature enhanced liquid refreshments. Of course I love tea (if I didn't then I guess you wouldn't have found this blog to begin with. I like to begin th emorning with an herbal blend (though not being a morning person, this often doesn't happen more than it does happen). And when I get to work, I enjoy my specially prepared hazelnut coffee from the deli. Then an hour later or so, I have moer tea. And then by the end of the day I've had another herbal blend...and at night more herbal tea, usually a potful before bed.
When it's snowing, like it was today, I might make myself a chai with milk, or a hot cocoa (yum!)
I hate cold. Once it's cold, I usually get sick to some degree. My body was made to live in Arizona or the like...but I live in New York. So, I try to find the one thing that can ward off cold. Only I change it up everyday. Sometimes it's an oolong, some days a chai, some days it's chamomile and lemon verbana, some days I don't get the coffee, some days it's nothing but hot cocoa...I don't think I could ever drink the same thing every day.
A Different day, a different drink.
Talking of which....excuse me, but my mug is empty again....
I tend to be an equal opportunity drinker and can enjoy any variety of temperature enhanced liquid refreshments. Of course I love tea (if I didn't then I guess you wouldn't have found this blog to begin with. I like to begin th emorning with an herbal blend (though not being a morning person, this often doesn't happen more than it does happen). And when I get to work, I enjoy my specially prepared hazelnut coffee from the deli. Then an hour later or so, I have moer tea. And then by the end of the day I've had another herbal blend...and at night more herbal tea, usually a potful before bed.
When it's snowing, like it was today, I might make myself a chai with milk, or a hot cocoa (yum!)
I hate cold. Once it's cold, I usually get sick to some degree. My body was made to live in Arizona or the like...but I live in New York. So, I try to find the one thing that can ward off cold. Only I change it up everyday. Sometimes it's an oolong, some days a chai, some days it's chamomile and lemon verbana, some days I don't get the coffee, some days it's nothing but hot cocoa...I don't think I could ever drink the same thing every day.
A Different day, a different drink.
Talking of which....excuse me, but my mug is empty again....
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