New Year’s Day was especially significant for me as we transferred ownership—after 14 ½ years—of Point Reyes Books to its new stewards. I wanted to do something significant to mark the first day of our new lives and so we attended a tea ceremony at Green Gulch Farm Zen Center.

In addition to the delicious thick green tea and mochi sweets, I found much nourishment in the beauty of the objects and the ceremony. When a fresh bowl of tea arrived we were told how many people, either five or six, the bowl would serve. It was our responsibility to gauge what our share was, making sure to leave enough for those that followed.

What a wonderful and rare teaching, that our share is not predetermined but is a marriage of what we are given and what others need. This speaks to me about my relationship with money that I need to both look out for myself and for others, simultaneously. And that by do so I am experiencing—and expressing—that we are interconnected. It also reflects an idea of a world in which there could be something for everyone, even though we are given different amounts.

At the tea ceremony there was so much to see and appreciate in just a few beautiful objects in the room, when we slowed down and really looked. A reminder that less is more when we pay deep attention.

Published 1/12/17