Drinking from the square cup taught me something new.  Sipping from the straight sides caused tiny bits of spillage where my round lips pursed against long edge.  I found it difficult to drink so I turned the corner against my mouth and tried again.

 Sipping from the corner wasn’t sipping at all.  It was pouring.  It was pouring the tea into me.  It ceased to be me drinking a beverage from a vessel.  I became the vessel and tea was poured to me as an offering--an offering to me, from me.

Now I see the act of eating and drinking as nurturing, not simply maintenance.  I am no longer eating food.  I am serving myself food.  I am being filled with food.  Each spoonful is a tiny offering from the part of me that supports my work to the part of me that performs my work.  When I prepare the food or the tea I become an instrument of my work’s sustenance.  When the food or tea is prepared for me I become a vessel to receive and be inspired by the offering—the work—of someone else.

I don’t see it as simple fuel for living anymore.  I see it as one divine act supporting another.  As we become willing vessels for offerings from ourselves or from others we may continue to fill others with our own unique offerings to them, and so on and so on.  I offer myself tea to comfort and inspire so that you may be comforted and inspired by my words.  As such, I become comforted and inspired by your appreciation, and so it goes. 

It was just a sip of tea from a square cup—an avenue of wisdom that feels as old as the ritual of tea itself, yet freshly relevant to me as the grateful new bearer.


(c) 2012, ACG