The Wonder of Tea - Heaven In a Cup

(First published in the Kansas City Wellness Magazine, February of 2000 )

Set a teapot over a slow fire....
and all of your sorrows will follow the vapor
-Emperor Kien Lung

C.S Lewis once wrote, "You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me." An interesting quote coming from an author whose writing style was terse and books slender. It just makes one value every last drop of goodness all the more. Immersed in a captivating tale with my tea cup steaming by my side, I can find heart-warming inspiration from cup and verse. Of late, my arm chair meanderings have shifted more to the Chinese variety; from Lewis to Lao-tze and English Breakfast to Jade Oolong. Ahhh, camellia sinensis. Green or black, a little bit of heaven in a cup. From the preparation to the final sup, the enjoyment of tea is one of those simple acts that allows us to breath in life a little more slowly and fully. A respite from comings and goings, Tien Yiheng says, "tea is drunk to forget the din of the world."

In China, where most botanists agree the plant originated, the Taoists and Buddhists enthusiastically embraced camellia sinensis and found it useful during meditation. A cup of fine tea enlivens as it calms and harmonizes the system. We feel better after a cup because we are better. As it turns out, tea has strong medicinal qualities.

In fact tea’s vital chemical compounds have many benefits for health. Studies have shown that the anti-oxidant polyphenols in tea may reduce the risk of several cancers, including gastric, esophageal, skin and ovarian cancers. Other studies have shown polyphenols help prevent blood clotting and lower cholesterol levels. Tea has been shown to boost the immune system’s disease fighting capacity of gamma delta T-cells. Polyphenols also reduce intestinal inflamation and aid in digestion. The plant nutrients, flavonoids eliminate toxins by deactivating potentially harmful free radicals. Studies have shown, as well, that tea can help stabilize diabetes, has anti-aging benefits, and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke and high cholesterol. Its anti-bacterial properties aid in the prevention of tooth decay. Tea contains vitamin A, B, C, as well as folic acid, potassium and manganese and in fact, rates as high or higher than many fruits and vegetables in the ORAC score which measures antioxidant potential. Along with exercise, tea can be an aid in weight loss by raising metabolic rates and speeding up fat oxidation. Drinking tea has also been found to lower stress hormone levels. No wonder one feels better and calmer after drinking a cup. And while a cup of coffee has 100 milligrams, an average cup of black tea contains 50 milligrams, and green tea only 22 milligrams of caffeine. According to Ken Cohen, world renowned qigong master, Chinese scholar and tea enthusiast, tea contains substances that may change or mitigate the effects of caffeine. And so, though tea enlivens and boosts metal alertness, it doesn’t jolt the system.

I was first introduced to fine tea by Master Kenneth Cohen, while studying qigong with him. I was amazed in the difference in taste, as well as the overall feeling I had from the fine, loose leaf, green tea we were enjoying compared to the varieties I was used to drinking. Speaking with Ken recently on the telephone, I asked him how he became such a tea connoisseur. "From my own studies. "he said, "All aspects of the Chinese arts are connected with tea." According to Master Cohen martial artists, doctors of Chinese medicine, qigong practitioners and artists all drink tea to regulate the flow of qi (vital energy), creating a feeling of well-being.

Ready to go fire up the kettle? Before you do, consider trying a high quality, single estate, whole leaf tea. Although the cost will be more than packaged tea bags found at the grocery store, the difference in nutrients and taste is well worth the price, and you will get many more infusions (3-7) from fine teas. According to Mr. Cohen, high quality tea is grown in a beautiful environment, needing special soil and climate. Unlike commercial brands of packaged teas, which are remnant and discarded leaves from many regions, fine tea is grown and carefully picked by hand from one estate, free of pesticides.

The Tea Market in Kansas City Missouri, located at 329 E. 55th, is a local tea shop which carries many "single estate" green, white, oolong and black teas from China, Taiwan, Japan and India. Owner Stacie Robertson, a certified tea professional, is a great source of information and sells, as well as fine teas, accessories and brewing equipment, including teapots from the Yixing region, which are known for enhancing the taste of tea.
Like a good book, a cup of tea nourishes and leaves you wanting more. So take the time, sit awhile, enjoy.

A Few Simple Steps to Fully Enjoy Your Tea
1. Use a ceramic cup or teapot.
2. Use spring or filtered water, brought just to a boil.
3. Warm cup/saucer or teapot/lid by running under hot water before brewing.
4. Place one teaspoon tea per cup in bottom of cup or teapot (you may want to use a tea strainer or ball)
5. Fill container with prepared water, cover with saucer or lid and steep for several minutes, until the whole leaf sinks to the bottom.

Further resources on the benefits of drinking tea:
The Book of Green Tea by Diana Rosen
The Way of Qigong by Kenneth Cohen

Kitchen Dance

(first published KC Wellness 2008)

On Sunday afternoons this past winter (this long, cold, dreary winter) my daughter Claire and I could be found cooking up some warmth and inspiration in the kitchen. Steam rising, knives clicking, voices singing we would do-si-do around one another in our kitchen dance, stirring, tasting, seasoning our bubbling pots, filled to the brim. One such afternoon, in the midst of it all my granddaughter Isabella exclaimed with realization,"I was born to be farmer!"

Well, we are not farmers. We just like to play farm folk on the weekends. I do live on a few acres and love to garden and cook and engage my grandchildren when I can (come help me pile this wood. It is fun). Still, her mother and I found this comment pretty funny coming from a savvy, city girl. But city folk or no, she responded to the age old ritual of the hearth, which makes each meal shared with loved ones, a simple yet profound celebration.

My own memories of my mother were either in the kitchen, creating sumptuous meals, or at the piano, dishing out Debussy. She came from a family of artists. And great cooks. From my great-grandmother, grandmother and mother on down to myself, my daughter and now my granddaughters, painting, playing music, writing, gardening, sewing clothes or preparing meals are all opportunities for artistic and heartfelt expression.

The home cooked meal is becoming a lost art. Racing here and there Americans have turned to empty consumption, bought on the run, eaten on the run. Fast, convenient and mindless. No fuss, no bother. It is this bother, this waste of precious time, says writer Edith Schaeffer, which brings forth the most amazing results, the worth of which, is hidden from many. Her classic book, Hidden Art, examines the opportunities for artistic expression found in ordinary tasks throughout each day. It is through giving our awareness fully to each task that we discover ongoing opportunities for conscious and authentic expression, nourishing body and soul, friends, families and community.

When creating edible art it is helpful to broaden one’s palette of ingredients. Get to know a parsnip. The wider the range of ingredients the richer the tastes. And it is better for your health. According to Chinese medicine using the five colors and flavors in each meal nourishes the organs as it pleases the senses. So get to know the many, colorful vegetables in the produce section which often baffles the nice check out lady asking the ongoing question, "...and what is this?" "Why, it’s a butternut squash. Get to know one."

Making the choice to get better acquainted with vegetables, legumes, nuts and whole grains also enables one to eat less meat. Meat is the most resource intensive food produced on the planet, requiring huge amounts of water, grain and land. A pound of beef requires approximately 12,000 gallons of water to produce, compared to 60 gallons used for a pound of potatoes. Most meat is full of hormones, antibiotics and pesticide residue which not only pollutes the body, but the soil, air and water as well. Eating less meat is a green move for yourself, a green move for the planet. Get to know a cabbage. It has the fiber you need, which meat lacks, to remove waste and toxins and clean up cholesterol.

Carlos Castaneda writes, "There is no emptiness in the life of a warrior. Everything is filled to the brim. Everything is filled to the brim, and everything is equal." I think the same can be said of a farmer. Even a city farmer.
Let us teach our children well. To fill pots and life to the brim.


Footnote:
Acknowledgements to Kathy Hale who choreographed a jaunty dance called Kitchen Dance back in the day at City-in-Motion....ladies and lassies dancing with bowls and spoons and do-si-dos around the stage. Good stuff!
Also....here is a recipe for a very simple dish - glazed carrots - an old time dish that can go with anything, cheap, easy, delicious.

Glazed Carrots
take a bunch of carrots, scrub or peel
slice them (I like to slice diagonally to please the eyes)
saute for a few minutes in butter or olive oil or combo (me and Julia like butter)
add either some tarragon or some fennel seed ....salt a bit and taste
squirt some lemon juice onto carrots...let it sizzle for a bit
add a dollop of maple syrup or some brown sugar
Voila!
Taste and adjust to your liking.....
Colorful, easy, yumtum goodness
Enjoy!

Sick of Sickness

It has been a bit sunnier around Terrace Lake this week. Muddy, but at least, more sunshine has come our way. Unfortunately, I was unable to take it in. I have not felt well. Downright crummy in fact. Something I ate went very wrong. Well, it had been Fat Tuesday. With Mardi Gras madness in the air, questionable combinations of delights were ingested. Ah me. I have paid. A night doubled up in a fetal position was the beginning of my Lent. This week I have been a little punk baby girl curled up on the couch, lathered in essential oils with me oolong and Olympics nursing my soul(speed skating and ice dancing rule. Go Speed Racer!). Despite my bag of healing tricks, by Thursday it had gone into my lungs and I was unable to teach the evening yoga class. Friday morning I called my Doctor of Chinese Medicine. Praise be, they could get me in.

"Your central axis, lungs, spleen, kidneys are out of wack," Fred said, reading my pulses.
"Urhgg," me moaning and coughing.
"We'll get you fixed up kiddo."

According to Chinese Medicine there is harmony in the system when all functions in body and mind are in accord with each other as well as with the environment. All in accord with a sense of ease and vitality. But it is a transcient state, for, according to the I Ching, "everything observable by the senses is subject to change and therefore in motion." This motion creates cycles of change or transformation. In nature, in humans. The Classic goes on the say, "One can learn to navigate treacherous currents by conducting themselves in harmony with prevailing processes of transformation - and thus weather the storms of life."

According to Doctor Fred, I created a storm, weakening my digestive system, the spleen and stomach, as well as putting stress upon my kidneys. And the lungs got caught in battle. In the Chinese system, the spleen or earth element is the mother of the lungs or metal element, and the lungs are the mother of the kidneys, or water element. It is seen as an inter-connected system. When one organ or energy system is in distress it creates a chain reaction, and malfunction in other parts of the body. It then all needs to be brought back to balance.

Lao-tze, tells us:
For all things there is a time for going ahead, and a time for following behind;
A time for slow-breathing and a time for fast breathing;
A time to grow in strength and a time to decay;
A time to be up and a time to be down;
Therefore, the sage avoids all extremes, excesses and extravagance.

Too late. A long winter of extreme cold and damp accompanied with comfort food eating and a month of being "up" at mardi gras parties has, at last, put me "down". Time for me to take a good look, (sigh...again), physically, emotionally and evironmentally, at how to avoid, or at least, lesson the effects of the extremes and extravagances of modern life which bring about unease and imbalance.

By the end of the treatment, my belly was already feeling happier.

"This would be a good time to do a cleanse," Fred said, noting we have entered into the spring season, according to the Chinese calendar. Spring is always a good time to cleanse the system of toxins built up from the last season.Thanksgiving, Christmas, the long winter blah eating rampages all need to be cleansed away to allow the new cycle to bring fresh energy and resolve for healthy eating and wholesome outdoor activity. I doubt anyone will need to be coaxed out-a-doors this year. We await the coming of the Warmth and Light.

The Tao Te Ching tells us;
Only when we are sick of our sickness shall we cease to be sick.
The Sage is not sick, being sick of sickness;
This is the secret of health."

I am sick of my sickness. The treatment has helped restore balance. And the sickness has helped restore resolve for harmony in body, mind, spirit and environment.


Deb out. Be well.

footnote:

Here is a simple and effective cleanse for the Spring. Drink it first thing in the morning for a week.

In a large glass prepare: 4 oz water/ 4 oz apple juice (organic, unfiltered is best); juice from half a lemon; pinch of cayene and ground ginger; one teaspoon olive oil.

Drink for six days in the morning. On the seventh day, add one Tablespoon of olive oil and also add one Tablespoon of maple syrup. Drink it in the morning and also at night.

Another tip. Beets are a good cleanser for the blood. Cook or juice some up. Yum Yum Beets.

Parsley tea clears the urinary track of bateria, infection and heat. Also is a good source for vitamin C, A and D, as well as a source of potassium (helpful in lowering blood pressure), calcium and folic acid. As well, it is a bitter herb (which we do not get enough of in the American diet)....get to know parsley...it is your friend

The Clear and Shinning Song of the Groundhog

It is another grey, wet, icey, slushy day at Terrace Lake.
Cold, thick, slushey snow drips from the sky, from the trees, filling the hollows, soaking the ground. The saturated ground.

It has been a long cold winter.
A winter for the history books.
The frozen tundra and monstrous ice plowed mountains have gradually melted away, creating a spongey, wet, mudddy bog.

Which has presented an ongoing challenge for my New Year's resolution. To walk every day. Twice a day if I rock.
My course is the walking way around the lake, Terrace Lake upon which I live. Me and my people as well as a gaggle of neighbors who all share a sweet wandering path around the elevan acre lake in the suberbs of south KC.
A nice way to raise the heart rate, walk the dogs, tire out the grandchildren, clear the mind. Connect with Nature.

We have come to this. We make dates wtih Nature. So far we have drifted.

And with this winter weather my resolution has drifted at times; tested by high snow drifts, howling winds, icey paths, thick fog, and spongey bogs.

It has been a long cold winter. And it is not over yet. Not till the groundhog sings.

Unless, of course, one is reckoning by the Chinese calendar. Based upon the sun and moon cycles, the former divides the year into twenty four periods called "energy nodes". Each of these nodes, or periods has a name corresponding to the change in the weather; "Great Heat", "Small Cold", "Awakening of the Insects".

The energy node called ch'ing-ming, "Clear and Shinning", marks the Chinese New Year and the Spring festival, celebrating the arrival of spring. It falls 105 days after the winter soltice, on the first day of the first lunar month of the calendar. Falling this year on February 15, it marks the renewal of spring as well as the renewal of the hearth fire.

Hearth fire is right. "Grey and Sleeting" seems a more appropriate discription.

I guess it is a faith kinda thing.

From beneath this icey, soaked tundra, spring will emerge again. The yang energy will rise to fire lagging spirits, fanciful fairy gardens, happy gatherings and friendly frolickings with Nature. Naturally.

But for now I need my icey New Year's Resolve and dates with Nature to walk my way around that Lake. Hoping to soon hear the clear and shinning song of the groundhog.