At a family gathering
One of my cousins got married. He came over to introduce us his new partner the other day. I planned to hold a casual tea ceremony to welcome them. I decided to serve tea in my living room. I had six people as guest. I invited them into the living room. When they got in the room, I could tell by their faces that they were all excited. They probably felt a different ambience than usual. I did nothing special. Maybe, they sensed it from the flower on display, steam coming from the kettle, dim lighting from half-closed blinds or the cleaned table without any finger prints. It’s needless to say that the tea gathering went quite successful and the guests left in awe.
Turn my living room into a tea space
Having tea with an extraordinary scenery or a tasteful tea room is awesome. But you can experience the principle of chanoyu even in an ordinary room. I believe that the essence of tea gathering is to create a special moment in your everyday living. You don’t have to do anything special to set up a tea space. It is simple but quite effective. What you do is clean the room, display a flower, adjust the lighting and you can light incense if you want. That’s it. There is no need for conspicuous decorations. Those modest but decent works will create the special atmosphere and I’m sure that your guests will notice your quiet attention to details.
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