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Last Spring we sent you a small piece of porcelain teaware. Do you remember? Well, at the time, we forgot to include a description of what it was exactly: as those of you who've looked on the forums know, it was in fact a teapot lid rest for brewing gongfu tea. As the months went by, all kinds of wacky and wonky testimonials started to roll in to our center accompanied by great guffaws and hijinks! People had used the little lid rest as a cup, a scoop, a shaving cream dispenser and, in the case of Colin Hudon a fingertip cover for extending his middle finger...
Below is one funny account of receiving the mysterious "white thingamabob" from our Spanish brothers. We hope you find the whole thing as funny as we did. We are going to put up a thread on the forums to share the other funny uses this gizmo was put to, so let us know if you thought about using it as a thimble or as part of a Kaiya incinerator (Unfortunately, the porcelain wasn't conductive so we had to revert to copper to keep the death ray functioning)...
Initially, I was perplexed about the gift that came with our GTH newsletter, but after rejecting various possibilities as to its purpose, I ultimately decided it could only be a cup... and soon learned it was a very special cup indeed! Its slightly rounded bottom makes it perfect for cultivating awareness! And since I had also chosen an irregular stone as part of my Cha Xi, it took even further skill to fill the cup gracefully. Each time I picked it up to drink and set it back down was an exercise in presence as I tried to stop it from warbling and spilling... Time after time I judged my aptitude as a reflection of my meditative state and oneness with the tea and its expression in my physical being. I was so grateful for this wonderfully simple yet challenging GTH gift! It wasn't until after I explained this to our GTH group that one of them told me she had read on the forum that it actually was a lid rest... To think I had put it to such great use!
