Community TeA
is about
being together
—
in quiet personal and communal ritual
Sharing tea together can be quite simple — and too
it allows us to recognize that our connection to boiled water and a few leaves is an ancient one.
Our ancestors picked leaves and berries, dug roots, and over open fire boiled water in handmade vessels. There was a cultivated, sacred, and intimate relationship with the natural world and the generous and bountiful plant medicine here on earth, a deep connection with the unseen world - an understanding of the importance of feeding these connections.
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Tea ceremonies can be quiet conversations with nature, a way to experience nature outside and nature inside. A way to slow down enough to appreciate all the work and effort that has allowed us to sit with these leaves. A way to develop meaningful relationships with all of life's cycles. Tea ceremonies can help us reorient, readjust, and right our relationship with the natural world – our human family and our non-human family, reminding us we are part of a large interconnected web of life. In a tea ceremony all elements are present – Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Wood, Metal, Spirit. As we sit with tea we are immediately drawn into a deeply grounded practice of presence and too the remembrance of an unspoken vastness.
These days, how often do we sit together in spaces of quiet in meaningful ritual? It is a pause in our day to let go of the work behind us and the work ahead of us, a reset button that returns us to a more peaceful, tranquil, and present state. As the speed of life increases and face-to-face heart-to-heart time decreases–coming together to slow down and engage in personal and communal ritual is absolutely essential.
Personal ritual is essential for helping the body process and assimilate life experience as well as mark significant life passages. For individuals, tea ceremonies can be an opportunity to directly commune with the healing properties of nature, as we drink in the wisdom of the leaves.
Drinking Tea in this way is heart opening. It helps individuals slow down and return to a place of stillness and rest and to reconnect to the natural cycles and rhythms of life. Tea in ceremony can help reduce anxiety, stimulate creativity, boost the body's natural ability to heal, aid in digestion, has been proven to have anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and anti-viral effects – along with many other health benefits.
Communal ritual is essential for a healthy culture. Communal tea ceremonies can build relationships and strengthen bonds between individuals, clarify a unified vision, help to resolve blocks, inspire a new way of working, living, simply being together, and more. Community rituals invite us to show up for one another, share and pool resources, and together become greater than any one individual.
We come together as a community when things need to be addressed, healed, honored, and celebrated – to reaffirm and enliven our connection to the natural world and all that is beyond our immediate understanding. We meet in communal ritual to grow together and learn to show up for one another and take action for the love of our siblings when needed.
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If you would like to donate to support the upkeep of our by donation community tea
and other community offerings you can venmo @kinnabari
Many thanks <3
~ Please Read ~
With humble acknowledgement of the earth origins of the leaves which I serve, primarily from China. The first people and their ancestors and relations living abroad and living there in relationship with and caring for and cultivating trees and plants as sacred. The land’s farmers and families and animals throughout time that have impacted and been impacted by the benefits and harm of tea trade. To all of her languages sung, spoken, painted, and written… As a white person serving primarily Chinese Tea, I acknowledge this responsibility and my lifelong commitment to anti-racism work.
Serving tea on occupied Adena, Hopewell, Monongahela, Seneca, Haudenosaunee, Lenape, Osage, and Shawnee + land - here on Turtle Island.
KINNABARI Teahouse practices liberation for all beings - in thought and action. Throughout the year tea ceremonies are offered for fundraising and awareness, and a portion of proceeds from yearly tea service are donated to local community organizations, mutual aid, groups, individuals, etc - Please reach out if I can support your community work.
With deep love for AAPI, BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, & Palestinian siblings.
Tea is open to all and this tea space is a welcome space for all.
When tea is served at particular host location there may be a set price per seat based on the locations requirements. Otherwise community tea is sliding scale & donation based - if finances are a barrier in any space - please reach out. I do my best to clarify each locations access - please reach out for any specifics at any location and please let me know if you have any other accessibility needs.
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RE: COVID - If you are not feeling well in any way - PLEASE STAY HOME :)
As someone with a long history of chronic health and auto-immune issues, I am working to balance my sharing of this offering while being aware of our communal health-care for one another.
As we are in close proximity and COVID is still here, please take care for your sake and the group.
I will continue to feel this out as we go.
Thank you for understanding.
