In the beginning was the leaf, and the leaf was loose and without water. And I saw this and said, “it is not good that the leaf should be alone. Let there be tea.” And it was so and tea is good. — Verna L. Hamilton
This is a time for recalibration. I gratefully welcome this present season as an opportunity to reflect, to declutter, and to make room for the next stream of adventures. I am making time to clarify what is worthy of my time and energy.
(What’s steeping, Good Tea People? Thank you for making time to pause, drink tea and connect. Welcome to all new readers, followers and subscribers. Decluttering is productive: I discovered unopened containers of tea that I previously purchased. Let there be tea. I’ll be savoring these one cup at a time. Go ahead and please make your own cup of goodness.)
What’s in Your Cup?
Most discoveries happen when we are seeking solutions for challenges. As a college administrator, I decided to create account on an application formerly known as Twitter. I knew from personal experience how paid internships attracted job opportunities. Therefore, I would teach them how to research and connect with their target companies and stand out from the competition.
I safeguarded my then-employer’s brand by first practicing on my name. Any anticipated early mistakes would be mine alone to fix. Even though failure was not an option, I was prepared to fail, to learn, and to pivot quickly.
What did I learn? Success comes wearing a disguise. I succeeded in both expected and unexpected places. There I was, tweeting about what was in my cup, literally drinking tea and minding my business. These 140-characters or less musings attracted a robust tea community of more than 80 countries.
(Raised cup salutes to all the Good Tea People who remember Follow Fridays! Thank you for the follows, the mentions and the kind words of encouragement. Thanks to Twitter, that’s how I met many of you in-person! Recently I visited the app and made some profile updates.)
Success came wrapped in a website log (“blog”) and a tweet.
A Blog and A Tweet
Twitter has its 140-character limits. I appreciated being able to exercise my digital marketing muscles. I enjoyed sharing culture, tea history and connection worldwide within this micro space. Considering the audience, Twitter was never designed for essays: you made your point and you moved on. That’s the reason it’s called microblogging.
What if I continued the tea conversation? Say less.
On August 12, 2009, I sat down long enough to write “In the Beginning…” and in the process created Straight From the Leaf. Here’s an excerpt from the opening post:
Being the unapologetic tea aficionado that I am, I am constantly shocked at the multitudes who have never in all their lives enjoyed a proper cup of tea. By proper, I mean actual tea leaves rather than dust. Leaves or dust? that is the question. Straight From the Leaf‘s aim is to:
- Inspire others to enjoy tea and its preparation
- Appreciate all the elements adding to the overall experience
- Create an atmosphere for purposeful conversation
In other words, we’ll talk about ways to savor life one cup at a time. This is the start.
(Good Tea People, I originally created Straight From the Leaf on Blogspot (also known as Blogger) and then migrated all of the content. Yes, newest readers, I am tech savvy and a lifelong learner. Please feel free to dive deeper into the other posts.)
Savor Each Sip
Success is living long enough to take another sip. People have been savoring precious cups of tea for more than 5000 years. I myself was introduced to tea culture at an early age and still dream of visiting every tea-producing nation. In the meantime, I am thankful for the specialty tea industry relationships cultivated over the years.
Tea is both a social exchange as well as a restorative personal practice. I remember taking vacation from work to attend World Tea East in Boston. I went as an attendee and didn’t realize tea industry pioneer Beth Johnston followed me on Twitter. Then I met Harney & Sons founder John Harney and shared a conversation infused with such wisdom that it remains with me still.
World Tea East next came to Philadelphia. Yeah!
I was invited to share my expertise with colleagues about how to best embrace technology, establish a presence and respect the tea traditions. It was vital to acknowledge the human beings connected to the leaf and the land.
It still is.
After World Tea East, I was a featured speaker at the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas.
The conference agenda was full with workshop sessions, tea education classes, vendor presentations and more. Yet World Tea Expo centered TEA and it is those conversations over tea that I believe strengthened and encouraged specialty tea industry members to continue in spite of the market challenges.
I’ve spoken and facilitated many other classes, workshops, interviews, conferences and classes both domestically and internationally. I’ve worked professionally in corporate, academia and nonprofits. Somehow the conversation always comes back to tea, especially when it involves relationship management and making sure that people are seen, heard and understood.
The conversation continues.
Cups Up Conclusions
Today I entered “Straight From the Leaf” as a prompt to explore whether or not I’ve honored the blog’s original goals. The picture below is worth more than a thousand words to me.
Cups up to Good Tea People Everywhere! Let there be TEA.
#DrinkTea #LetThereBeTEA
