Reflection by Edgar Cahn
The ceremony creates and celebrates a moment. Each moment is its own eternity. We experience it. But then it evaporates. But it was, undeniably was – and we have memory as a gift to honor its having happened.
To live is to savor the moment. TimeBanking is a way to honor that our life is more than a collection of moments. Moments lived define our life, who we are. But we are more than the sum of our parts, of moments lived. In appreciating that, our lives are part of a larger, living universal life.
The tea ceremony spans centuries and cultures. It takes me back to my studies in English literature and the poet, John Donne, who lived from 1572 to 1631. Two poems of his capture ways of what our lives mean as moments in a larger reality:
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”
“Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
That is the meaning of the moment.
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