Week 05…

I suppose it’s mildly-entertaining, right until the moment I crash and fold in on myself like ill-tempered origami.

Coffee is a drink I associate with industry and speed… but not the easy speed of a gazelle on the Serengeti. Instead, I think of a greyhound with a bad case of indoor zoomies: careening around corners, banging into walls, and coming to a bug-eyed halt, only to take off again a second later with no update to its navigational chart. Sometimes I watch my coffee-consuming colleagues act the same way, chasing mechanical rabbits in the form of emails, code reviews, and conference calls.

But the purpose of this post is neither to disparage coffee, nor those who favor it (some of my best friends are coffee-drinkers)! Instead, I wanted to present the beverage as a herald of productivity, so that I may now contrast it with tea, which many view as its opposite.

Tea is for garden parties and quiet days spent looking out of windows. Tea can taste of fruit and flowers. Tea will often go neglected and grow cold in your cup because it doesn’t command your attention with every sip. It’s the greyhound who sleeps fifteen hours every day, feet up in the air, tongue lolling out of its mouth.

Tea is not industrious, it idles. But this is wrong — tea has its own productivity.

Making a good cup of tea requires patience; steeping allows time for, say, jasmine pearls to unfurl. The water darkens, and you must be mindful not to let it grow too strong, otherwise it can also grow bitter. And there are other elements to consider, like the temperature of the water (RIP Maggie Smith), and if the flavor you’ve chosen necessitates cream and sugar (or just honey, if you’re me).

Yes, like all things in this time of modernity you can settle for the bottled grab-and-go of your choice, but I find that when I make tea, the nuances force me to slow down, and that in turn allows me to appreciate the ritual.

And appreciation is a form of productivity.

Yesterday, I spent hours walking across Golden Gate park and through the botanical garden. The magnolias were at their “peak bloom,” but I had no notion what that actually meant — the pictures online were pretty, the weather wasn’t terrible, and so off I went. And I was amazed.

First, magnolia trees tower — they are not delicate, waif-like flora — you could see the pink blooms looming over the other greenery immediately upon entering the grounds. And their perfume… San Francisco’s polar vortex was a steady breeze that blew the entirety of the afternoon, and carried the citrus-honey scent of the magnolias with it. Before today, I had never experienced a “heavy” scent (one that has a weight and a texture to it), but the perfume of the magnolias really was as velvety as clotted cream (keeping with my tea-theme).

After wandering and wondering at the beauty of nature, I sat on a bench opposite the koi pond and read for another few hours. The sun warmed my skin, the insects buzzed around me, and children visiting with their parents constantly peered from the water’s edge at the fat carp gliding just beneath its mirror-surface.

It was a good day. And although I did not initially think so, it was a very productive one for my spirit.

SF Neighborhoods/Places Explored: San Francisco Botanical Garden, Blue Heron Lake, Inner Sunset

Soundtrack: P!NK

Bus + Bench Book: We Are Green and Trembling, by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Finished)

Lesson-Learned: When you least expect it, your dragon will appear (iykyk)