SUMMER GRACE – 50 Gms

“Grace. Grace is spiritual WD-40, or water wings when you’re sinking. The mystery of grace is that God loves Henry Kissinger and Vladimir Putin and me exactly as much as He or She loves your new grandchild. Go figure.  The movement of grace is what changes us, heals us and heals our world. To summon grace, say, “Help,” and then buckle up. Grace finds you exactly where you are, but it doesn’t leave you where it found you. And grace won’t look like Casper the Friendly Ghost, regrettably. But the phone will ring or the mail will come and then against all odds, you’ll get your sense of humor about yourself back. Laughter really is carbonated holiness. It helps us breathe again and again and gives us back to ourselves, and this gives us faith in life and each other. And remember – grace always bats last” – Anne Lamott

You know how, we say “something left us changed” – how something must ‘leave’ for us to change? It’s mostly a figure of speech – nothing really leaves, but it’s nice to be reminded that there are things that come unnoticed and stay unnoticed, until one day, in a situation that demands otherwise, it expresses itself as a certain elegance that is calm, benevolent and at ease. It’s nice to know that there are things – things capable of changing us and not requiring the compromise of a figure of speech for expression- that find us but never leave us – unchanged. Grace.

There are teas for the end of days and then there are teas for one of ‘those’ days – this is the latter. A 4 Gm helping of the Summer Grace will elucidate what we mean – express the sweet, calm benevolence in a way that doesn’t require the compromise of narration. One could call it intensely expressive but that would undermine the grace and elegance in the elaborate expressions of the large AV2 leaves – the kind that stays. It is a summer cornucopia of fruity expressions – aroma of Apple, Litchee and Ripe Mango notes soaked in honey – with intensely sweet taste of slightly roasted Cocoa and baked fruits with a Herby and floral undercurrent to it. The fruity notes are interspersed with a herby dryness – like dry cocoa mixed with herbs. Although one suspects so throughout, the floral grace in the notes of its expressions becomes more apparent as the tea cools down. There is an ease, a certain elaboration to its notes that comes bearing a goodwill that stays a while and assures, grace always bats last.

Who was it that said “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past” and “Grace is you running out of any more good ideas”?