God the Tea Master
God the Tea Master
Author: Sally Ito
Source: Sally Ito
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ito
Advent placement: 2025-12-10 (paired with [[10-uncle-nearest-1856]])
Theme: Laying down the day’s weapons; coming naked and unarmed, like an infant to its mother, to be served grace.
Verbatim source text
Reproduced from calendar/2025-12-10.qmd (Whisk(e)y Advent 2025).
God the Tea Master by Sally Ito
All the weapons we marshal to confront the day You ask to be left by the door before entering. The sword in its sheath must lie on the grass, the quiver and bow hung off a branch. Daily mind, that dons the armour of thought, does not shed the weaponry easily; too many are the tasks that require its particularity – its thrust-and-jab conquest of the hour, the arsenal of muscle and aim, to kill one after another, disappointment, discouragement, or to dent the thick underbelly of despair.
Confronting the day requires such armaments. But You do not. Even the most shallow practitioner of Your art is welcome into Your teahouse. And You serve, as always, grace.
In the quiet sipping, the hours become an eternity, a night of waxing and waning moons in contrast to relentless day. Naked and unarmed, the infant to its mother – this is the way You would have us come to You and be served.