TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Jack Cheng on drinking tea:

Over time, I found myself consuming more tea in both quantity and variety. I started reading books about tea, taking classes on tea and even doing little projects with tea. The more I immersed myself in all things tea, the more I saw it as a way of thinking about the pressures of the daily grind.

Jack is precisely right: the entire process of making tea — from heating the water, to steeping the tea leaves just the right amount of time, and to finally drinking it — is incredibly calming and conducive to thought and reflection.

The time I spend drinking a cup of tea is a break in the torrent of due dates, emails, to-dos, phone calls, and other mind-numbing noise that any day entails.

I am not sure why making tea creates this relaxation; maybe it is the feeling of performing a ritual each day that is thousands of years old, tapping into something timelessly human. But I am sure that it is something special in a time when almost every where we go, we are pounded by the noise of modern life. It is a moment of clarity.