the ritual of tea

i've just finished the most pleasurable read (the elegance of the hedgehog), from which i found this perfect description of tea drinking.  honestly i can't tell if i adored this novel because of its quality (it is an award winning french book) or because it's been so long since i've read one.  regardless, this excerpt about a daily ritual of a cup of tea between friends captured my heart and put into words so masterfully my love of the cup of tea:

today, because it has been transgressed, our ritual suddenly acquires all its power; we are tasting the splendid gift of this unexpected morning as if it were some precious nectar; ordinary gestures have an extraordinary resonance, as we breathe in the fragrance of the tea, savor it, lower our cups, serve more, and sip again: every gesture has the bright aura of rebirth.  at moments like this the web of life is revealed by the power of ritual, and each time we renew our ceremony, the pleasure will be all the greater for our having violated one of its principles.  moments like this act as magical interludes, placing our hearts at the edge of our souls: fleetingly, yet intensely, a fragment of eternity has come to enrich time.  elsewhere the world may be blustering or sleeping, wars are fought, people live and die, some nations disintegrate, while others are born, soon to be swallowed up in turn - and in all this sound and fury, amidst eruptions and undertows, while the world goes its merry way, bursts into flames, tears itself apart and is reborn: human life continues to throb.

so, let us drink a cup of tea.

...when tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.   where is beauty to be found?  in great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that aspire to nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?

the tea ritual: such a precise repetition of the same gestures and the same tastes; accession to simple, authentic and refined sensations, a license give to all, at little cost, to become aristocrats of taste, because tea is the beverage of the wealthy and of the poor; the tea ritual, therefore, has the extraordinary virtue of introducing into the absurdity of our lives an aperture of serene harmony.  yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us.  then let us drink a cup of tea.  silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light.  and, with each swallow, time is sublimed.