Inspiring Thoughts on Tea

This is from The Book of Awakening, Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have, by Mark Nepo. It is entitled Making Tea. Enjoy!
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If we stop to truly consider it, making tea is a miraculous process. First, small leaves are gathered from plants that grow from unseen roots. Then boiling water is drained through the dried leaves. Finally, allowing the mixture to steep creates an elixir that, when digested, can be healing.
The whole process is a model for how to make inner use of our daily experience. For isn't making tea the way we cipher through the events of our lives? Isn't the work of sincerity to pour our deepest attention over the dried bits of our days? Isn't patience the need to let the mixture of inner and outer brew until the lessons are fragrant and soothing on the throat? Isn't it the heat of our sincerity that steams the lessons out of living? Isn't it the heat of those lessons that makes us sip them slowly?
Yet perhaps the most revealing thing about all this is that none of these elements alone can produce tea. Likewise, only by using them together, can we make tea of our days and our sincerity and our patience. And none of it is healing without a willingness to drink from the tea of life.
* Slowly, and symbolic care, make a cup of tea.
* As the tea is steeping, be mindful of your life and how you bring your sincerity and patience to bear on your days.
* Sip slowly and feel gratitude coat your throat.