Steep

Years ago, I made a video with my friend about tea ceremonies. I was fascinated by his tea process, the way that he would strain the tea leaves over and over, creating a new “steep” each time. The hot water would run through the tea, extracting new textures, flavors, and colors until eventually the leaves too shriveled to produce anything worth tasting.

At the time, we compared this process to friendship, and how different iterations or steeps could produce vastly different relationships and results. And now, I think about this with raising my child.

My wife and I often marvel at the fact that we thought our son was cute as a newborn. He was cute, but not anywhere near as cute as he is now. He went through a “steep” of his own, and new colors and flavors were reveled. And every day, he continues to unfurl like a flower.

But in order to steep, you need to be doused in hot water. Heat causes expansion. And we can’t forget about this fact in our lives.

Pain leads to revival, for babies and adults. If we don’t feel brave enough to sit in hot water and steep, we won’t grow either.