SUMMER PILGRIM – 75Gms

Praying

It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

— Mary Oliver

It may just be how your favorite cup makes the bold, transparent amber color of the pilgrim look or how well the floral subterfuge rises up with the rhythm of the ripples your cup makes; It may as well be the candy or the honey you know so well with a tingling minerality that makes you smile at its floral ruse when it turns fruity, or your own heart that knows – “there’s more!”. It couldn’t possibly be your beloved cup or the seasoned timber it rests on, but the grapes on wood seem to grow. “Why couldn’t it be the beloved cup? What the hell do we know!” It may well be the steep, still redolent, with camphor and sandalwood but that doesn’t really add to the show?? Maybe it is the tobacco tainted aftertaste that lingers, and all the hints we don’t take as we go.

But that’s not quite why we drink tea, is it? Just like we don’t walk trails for the discomfort, forsake sleep for vigils, fast to go hungry or desire solitude for the loneliness. Those are just ‘how’ we experience them, not why! The why comes from need – for space in which we can blend our own contrasts; for a place that opens a ‘doorway into thanks’ and allow ‘a silence in which another voice may speak’; for things that make us abstain from the contest to exist and understand and simply listen to hope whispering her aromas, flavors, hints and prayers to us. You see, we drink tea for the very reason we pray – to feel our own gratitude for all the ‘whys’ we won’t ever understand. It’s one of those times when you can feel your own gratitude without expressing it.

We drink tea for all the reasons we do and don’t understand!

We can’t quite claim to understand this Pilgrim’s way but we list it as carrying equal parts of both subterfuge and deliverance. Make up your mind about any notes and you experience the subterfuge, try not to make up your mind and it reveals its sincerity. Its arrival, most unexpected, both in flavor and in timing adds an even more unexpected contrast to the other summer arrivals.

With notes that sometimes reads like a prayer with the wishes of poetry and other times feels recitable, like poetry with the humility of a prayer, there is a bold determined path that the summer pilgrim follows.

Brewing instructions – 2.5 -3 Gms of tea with 180ml of water at 90 degrees Celsius for 31/2 mins. (Subterfuge)

Or 3 Gms of tea with 180ml of water at 90 degrees Celsius for 41/2 mins. for a bolder tobacco finish (Deliverance)