Tag: training

Running down to the end of the year

As we approach the solstice it seems like I am running downhill as things accelerate. Holiday plans, travel plans, baking, cooking, wrapping gifts, decorating; it all seems to go faster with less time every year as I get older.

This year I am certainly getting the feeling of growing older and approaching the time …

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Reunion reflections

I have much to still to process about the 50 year Midorikai reunion. I think overwhelmingly it was being in the company of those who have had the experience of studying tea in Japan. Everyone learns how to get into kimono in less than ideal conditions. Everyone starts as a beginner learning to walk, sit …

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Summer intensive tea study at Issoan

We have just concluded the second summer intensive at Issoan. Between the kimono and dogu sale, to kagetsu, to kimono dressing to kaiseki cooking to calligraphy and chashaku carving we did a lot of activities. The highlight of the week concluded with a yobanashi chaji given by two students who have completed the 3-year teacher …

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Tea Reflection

Guest Post by Andrew Nguy.  Andrew was in China on a Fulbright scholarship when Covid broke out. Andrew studied with me online through the Covid pandemic. He is now off to Yale for East Asian graduate studies.

One wintry morning as I roamed the halls of a temple in China’s historical southern capital, I received …

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Up your game

When I was in my corporate life, I met with a development coach. I complained to him that I didn’t think that the job I was doing was making much of a difference in the world. He asked me if that was what I wanted to do, make a difference in the world. Of course, …

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