Tea builds relationships

Part of this blog is also to discuss how tea has made me more intentional, and how it has  had a positive impact on my life.  Something that I am very excited about was the communication that opened up between my partner's daughter and myself over the last month since I have started the tea course.  She is  17 years old and heading off to university this fall.  Things have never really been great, but over time I think we've both started to give each other a break and try harder to communicate and have more of a relationship.

It's really been years of miscommunication, hurt feelings and a clashing of wills that has built up.  We don't have a lot in common either, but tea is something that she took an interest in about a year ago, and it's still going strong.  I have to say that she had taken on the passion of tea before I did.  But now we have something in common.  We have something to share and talk about.

My desire to learn about tea started because of a trip I took last year to Nepal.  Yes, I drank a lot of tea while I was trekking in Nepal.  In the mountains they don't have much in the way of a good cup of java, so I relinquished the morning ritual and took on tea.  I didn't miss coffee, but I do really love to have my morning coffee, so it wasn't a change in my ritual that drove me to learn about tea.

I was really trying to think of a way that I could start a business that involved importing product from Nepal.  They grow coffee and they grow tea.  I researched and decided that tea might be a good way to go.  I'll get into all of this in another post later on.  I decided that I needed to lean about tea if I wanted to import tea and start a business involving tea.  So that is how I ended up in the Tea Sommelier course.

I've only completed the first course - I just got my marks from my exam and overall I walked away with 95.5%!!  I'm thrilled about that!!  What I've learned and read about tea fascinates me.  I love the flavours, the human connections that are created over tea, and the ability to relax and focus on the tea when I am doing my tastings, and not be interrupted by the daily stresses and interruptions that seem to be able to creep in everywhere else.  The course also has a forum where you can leave posts and have discussions with other course participants.  I have met some wonderful people here as well.  One of the girls has a Facebook page Les Thes Laha-Nia  She posts some beautiful photos, tea industry news articles etc.  Please follow the link and like her page!!  The pages main lingo is in French, but pictures need to words, most of the news links etc are in english, and you can use translator to read the posts in English.

I am so very thankful to find a common thread with my boyfriend's daughter.  It 's been just over 8 years and finally it feels like we've caught a break.  Thank you tea for nurturing this connection and allowing for it to happen!!