thoughts on tea
i have a little tea corner in my living room. it's actually like, this old tv furniture thing? you know, the rectangular boxes where we used to put box TVs and the bottom has space for a drawer, a cabinet and a bunch of thingies. i got a plastic shelf and put it on top, and filled it all with ingredients and mugs. it's pretty cool :3
it hasn't cost me much, and the joy it brings me is immense. the tea and ingredients are all from a local shop or the mercado. and the little notebook where i write down all my tea exploits was a gift.
it makes me feel human to take the time off my day to select a base tea and two or three side ingredients, and blend them, and wait two days so i can have the blend. i even like when it's bad because that means i get to play with it some more. it's like, it connects me with myself to do something that encompases all of my senses like that.
the community around tea in my town is small, but they're all nice. i've made a couple good friends and i see them every week. i'd never felt like i was actually part of a community before. i've been into like, comics and stuff, and i've tried in the past to participate in local communities - but there was always this like fundamental disconnect between me and everyone else. like i could never really insert myself into the dynamic, like i was always a bit of an outlier or a replaceable item in the equation of the group. everyone was always super nice to me, so maybe it was just me - being me.
it's not like that at all with tea. my friends and i swap recipes, equipment and ingredient providers. there's zero gatekeeping and i've never felt like i was less than for being the new one. they listen to my ideas and help me build up on them, and they come to me when they want to brainstorm something too.
idk, i just think it's kinda neat to finally feel like i belong to something π½π½