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"Teaism is more than an idealization of the form of drinking; it is a religion of the art of life." — Okakura Kakuzō

I start every day the same way, regardless of where I am in the world. Before doing almost anything else I engage in a familiar ritual: preparing a bowl of matcha, whisked into being with anticipation and an open heart. It is more than a hot morning drink; it is a small act of devotion—a daily ceremony where art, history, and intention meet.

My ritual begins with choosing a chawan, the tea bowl. Some are heavy, their earthen glazes rough to the touch; others are sleek and smooth. Mostly I remember where every one came from: the place I bought it or the person who gifted it to me and why. I pause over my collection of chawans for a moment, letting instinct guide my selection. Each bowl offers a different kind of start to the day.

I set the chawan on a green cotton cloth alongside the tools that are essential to making matcha. With the cloth as a background and the tools as subjects—matcha powder, chawan, chashaku, and chasen—I render the intention for my day.

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Next comes the matcha itself: a fine, vivid green powder, ground from shade-grown tea leaves through methods perfected over centuries. Using a chashaku, a slender bamboo scoop, I measure enough to fall in a mound at the bottom of the bowl, some days more, some days less, depending on how much energy I think I will need!

Water, just short of boiling, meets the matcha and fills the bowl. I reach for the chasen—the bamboo whisk, hand-carved from a single piece of bamboo into 80 thin tines—evocative of a flower plucked of its petals. Quickly whisking the tea into a bright, frothy surface is a motion I know by heart, connecting me to a lineage of those who have found meaning in this same simple act.

Next I smell what I have made. The warm fumes remind me of what I have done every day for years and thus provides grounding and comfort. The first sip then both quiets and animates everything. The taste is clean, bold, and—to me—yummy! Unlike coffee’s sharp jolt, matcha offers a steady, focused energy—bright and calm at once—sharpened by the tea’s alchemy that monks still prize for meditation.

In this small ritual, I find more than calm; I find connection—to history, to place, to the traditions that provide quiet wisdom every day. It is a way of choosing presence over rush, depth over insignificance, art over habit.

One bowl at a time, every day, I come back to myself.