Tranquility. Serenity. Peace. Good Health. Equilibrium.
You’d like to have these everyday, wouldn’t you? Of course some prefer the quick hustle bustle of a metropolitan life, but when you lead that type of life and you think of “getting away” or “vacationing” you seek a break from the continuous productivity and wish for nothing more than those words stated above. Why do people go to spas? Why do people do yoga? Exxxactly! Balance is key to everything, but you already know that.
Seoul and Daegu are pretty busy cities. But if you look carefully, in the little nooks and crannies you’ll find little pearls of calm. My uncle brought me to this place for a casual afternoon of tea time and I fell in love.
[This wasn't a store full of teabags. The tea came in all-natural circular bricks, stacked like this]
I was never a huge tea drinker. It's supposed to be better than coffee so I tried, got the occasional sample from Teavana at the mall, even bought one of those really cool tea steepers that fit on a mug, but could never bring myself to sit down and enjoy a nice pot of tea. Like anything else, if you take the time and really live in the moment, you'll discover things you were otherwise too busy or distracted to notice. And you'll find those five things listed above.
We gathered at a small table that was made of wood...but not like the plywood or processed oaks and maples you see most commonly. This was one of those "I cut this straight from the tree trunk and it is one piece" tables. Collected on top was a tray that drained the overflowing tea to a sink in the back and on top were several small teapots of glass and fired clay, a brush, and little clay figurines of Asian culture.
[The luck pig]
The lady treating us to "tea time" had such a presence of peace, it radiated to create a little bubble of comfort and ease around us gathered at the table. She gingerly poured the boiled water into the little fist-sized teapot several times, emptying after each pour.
When it was finally ready to drink, she poured my mom, uncle, herself and me each a little tiny glass teacup of 보이차, pronounced bo-ee cha. It's a type of tea that is extremely healthy for you, proven to help relieve a list of symptoms caused by stress and body imbalance including headaches, constipation, poor blood circulation, diabetes, and more. Kind of like a miracle tea, it even helps with dieting!
Tasting various blends, we drank cup after cup after cup, casually chatting about cultural differences and the interesting behaviors of people in Europe compared to those of people in America. No sugar, no preservatives, just straight up natural. This of course, in two contexts. The tea, as well as our conversation.
These types of moments come few and far between. I mean reflect on your own week, and try to think of how many times you sat and had a conversation with no facade, thoroughly enjoying the moment and not thinking of where you needed to be, what you needed to do next, and what else you could be doing. Of course, we couldn't do this all the time...there would be no progress in society because being so content leads to no motivation to change anything. But, I think to balance out the stress of a week's or even a day's activities, these kinds of things are needed.
I took a class my freshman year of college, taught by Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko's. He's a very successful person, and had many great lessons to teach but one of the greatest bits of advice I took away, was to be dumb for an hour every day. Allow yourself that one hour to be unproductive and do something that'll make you relax and reboot. It's a very simple bit of advice, but I think if actually kept to, could go a long way.
So, my uncle gave me a little tea set and I am going to commit myself to tea time. It's not even about the tea...the tea drinking is just a vehicle to that hour of tranquility. It provides the opportunity, much like meeting for coffee allows for friendly conversation with a stranger.
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