Tea for Tohoku

I am done with OT school. I'm now spending my days studying for the licensing exam and unpacking boxes. I moved back to Albuquerque in January, but due to the intensity of my internships, I haven't had a chance to unpack until now.

I found this collage this morning, something I made a few years ago. It's a bowl of matcha tea and a Japanese tea sweet. A hand in a gesture of offering. Those familiar with Japanese sweets will recognize its jellied consistency. The collage is made entirely of Christian images, the hand belongs to Jesus and the sweet is made of the light from the Holy Spirit. I love collage, anything can happen!

I received an email today from my friend and Japanese Tea Ceremony teacher, Haruko. A tea group she belongs to in Japan donated tea to those affected by the tsunami. She included the following message, written by one of the tea store owners to the survivors.

"Thank you very much for allow us to send tea to you. these tea leaves were picked in 2010. The year, we had a big problem at the tea plantations. Because the freezing cold weather attacked right before picking tea leaves. All of the green good tea leaves were turned brown and seemed all of the tea bushes were dead. But few days after the weather warmed up, the tea bushes were growing and had nice green young tea leaves. We did not get much tea leaves, but the tea was wonderful. Please you, survivors and Japan will come back strong like this tea. We are thinking of you."