ruach hakodesh pt 2- tea as plant

21 shvat 5781

camellia sinensis is not the only ‘tea’ i drink. every morning i drink herbal tea when i wake up. depending on what time of year or how i am feeling i will drink different things. in the winter i like things that are warming and spicy to help generate some heat and give some fire to my digestion. during the summer, i usually wake up with my anxiety at an 11. boom, im awake, time to be anxious. when this happens, i like to start my mornings with some serious downer tea to help me calm down. i like to make my own blends but i also will drink bag tea, especially this time of year when i feel more ‘blah’ and want something convenient.

when i go backpacking or camping i love spending my morning by walking around and finding some things to make tea with. i will boil water, make my ‘forest tea’ and sit by some water and pray or sing while i drink my tea.

 

i love tea because it is a plant. i love interacting with plants. i especially love plants i can eat, drink, or make medicine with.

 

camellia sinensis is not the only plant i drink, treat with care, or study the intricacies of its qi. teas are just one of the many plants i like to interact with. it is delicious, it is invigorating, and it holds lots of nuances. i treat some plants i use for medicines similarly to how i treat tea. i will note where i harvest them from. i will note the conditions they grew in. i will note what time of year i harvest them. i will think of the best way to prepare them whether it be tea, tincture, or both. i will taste them and sit with them and try to see how they feel in my body. and i will compare this to other medicines ive had from this plant either made by myself or others. 

 

i am happy so many people love tea. my hope is that this love of tea will bring people to build connections with other plants. so much of what we love and can feel in tea we can find in other plants. i also hope these connections we build with tea, the tea trees, and their growing regions will help us build connections to ecology in general. if you care about a good tea harvest for your future consumption, you should care about: weather patterns, seasonality, growing conditions, harvesting techniques, tree care, and the other plants or fungi that grow alongside these tea trees. all of this connects to ecology, natural history, and environmental stewardship. 

 

i hope that peoples’ love of tea will connect them to other plants and help them make more meaningful plant-human relationships.

xoxo,

atzei besamim