Toward Ecosophy

As a former tea ceremony student, I'd like to add my two cents. The "magic" of tea ceremony is called ichi go ichi e in Japanese. That translates to one time one meeting or once in a lifetime. To me it means to treasure the experience, to enjoy the silence and to realize that the tea ceremony happening right now will only happen this time. Even though each class I attended had the same structure, each class was completely different. There were different flowers in the alcove, different sweets to have with the bitter tea and different moods of the attendees. So, gratitude is tied into ichi go ichi e. We are grateful for the tea, grateful for the learning, grateful for our feelings and grateful for the time together. I'm probably making a mess of the ichi go ichi e concept, but that's the magic. Be in the moment. You can meet a friend for coffee every Tuesday, but every coffee date is special.