I could not walk correctly.
I did not know where to sit.
I did not know which hand to use, what to pick up,
how to pick it up. Nothing had stuck with me,
even though I had done it all just an hour before.
You have to start from zero . . .
Reporter and essayist Morishita Noriko reflects on twenty-five years of studying the Japanese Way of Tea, from her first uncertain steps as a college student to her gradual discovery of freedom within the very rules that once seemed to hold her back. As Morishita experiences the trials and triumphs of adult life, from job-hunting setbacks to lost love, from the struggle to build a career to the pain of losing a loved one, Tea is always there to remind her that simply being present in the moment is enough. The joy of savoring the seasons with all five senses—of smelling the rain, of hearing each individual raindrop. The importance of cherishing each meeting as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Humor and heartbreak, despair and determination—in this memoir, Morishita vividly connects the Way of Tea to the full span of human experience, culminating in the exhilaration of realizing “I’m alive, right now!”
