INSIGHTS FROM RECEIVING TEA 1. We need to receive and be served our own medicine too sometimes. In addition to sitting with Tea ourselves. In order to remember. There is so much learning from just being served. A different kind of learning that cannot be received through serving yourself or through watching courses. Crazy but true. Of course there are exceptions - me and my amazing tea friends in other countries simply didn't or don't have anyone to serve us tea. Or being a solo mum I just didn't have time, energy or childcare to go to other events. But I know that if I did have that chance, I would have benefited enormously. 2. Being served Tea is a relational practice. There is a recognition that we depend on each other. There is a certain kind of vulnerability in that. While we can serve ourselves and be fully independent, sort of "I am self sufficient and can do everything myself", it is so powerful to be vulnerable and open to receive from another. 2. Also, having done many beautiful zoom tea ceremonies - both as a guest and serving others myself, I can say wholeheartedly that nothing - NOTHING - compares to an in person tea ceremony with literally having nothing to do and just receiving, with the real tea with the real steam being passed to you by another. With real people sitting next to you. As much as zoom tea ceremonies are beautiful in their own right and convenient too, they are not a replacement for a real one. They are NOT. 3. The more you are connected to the SUBTLE, the more you will truly GET Tea. Because it is about the subtlety of the experience, the fine energies, the finer details. Quite often when we start on the path (whatever that means, I am sometimes confused myself), we need loud sounds, smoke and feathers - strong experiences to even feel something. But the deeper we go, the less there is need for that, and the more we start appreciating practices that connect us to the subtle realm.