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In May, the last of the world's spring tea is being plucked and processed, finished and brought to market. From the Great Nature beyond and nurtured through tea, each leaf is also brimming full of human energy: sweaty bandanas, dirty knees and deft fingers covered in tea oils. May is a good time for gratitude, recognizing all the hard work that generations of farmers have put into tea, extending back millennia. They have shaped the ancestry of the trees and adapted all the processing methodology that has allowed for the great variety of teas we enjoy today. Countless stems have been squeezed free from a thousand thousand trees, millions of leaves sorted and then shared. At any time, kettles stir to life the world over - each a celebration of all the hard work that has gone into Tea.
We raise our bowls to the blood of all the tea farmers buried in and around the tea gardens. Their bones are the roots of our tea. And to the present farmers, working sustainably to create eco-friendly tea, we also raise a bowl, bowing to their efforts to light the way in the name of a healthier relationship between the bowl and the earth. When we drink our tea with a complete awareness, there is a sense of satisfaction in the farmers' work - our contented smiles mirror theirs, both assured the tea has found the place where it belongs.
The hard work all the tea farmers are doing this month also reminds us that their influence doesn't end with the leaves; it continues on in all that we do. The writing, editing, packing and other work we put into these envelopes is indeed a continuation of the farmers' labors, and also in love. Then each of you fills a pot or a bowl, drinking these amazing teas together. In that way, all that you do is filled with the efforts and inspirations that motivate us at the Hut.
We are inspired by all the feedback we receive from you. We hope that we can continue to find ways to connect with all of you, and help you to help us grow this Hut. This month we started a new blog on our site, which we will update regularly with even more tea wisdom, inspiration, photos of sessions around the world and news of this community as it expands. We also hope to discover new ways to connect all of you to each other. This month some of our members decided to drink Global Tea Hut teas at the same time around the world, coordinating a session between three countries. We hope to see more such sessions and international connections in the future.
This month is our first international tea tour. We're traveling around Yunnan together with Global Tea Hut members from five countries. In the future, we hope to organize such gatherings on a larger scale, inviting all of you to join us. Such trips can be educational tours, combined with a wonderful opportunity to get to know tea brothers and sisters from around the world. Do you have any other ideas for connecting Global Tea Hut members?
And as our community strengthens, and these magazines/teas improve, we honestly feel like this experience is reaching new heights every month. More and more people are telling us that Global Tea Hut is a very important part of their month, and as such we know that as you help us show it to others, membership will continue to increase and we will begin to build more, bigger and better tea centers and tea spaces, which will result in more tea community and fellowship, increased readership, and so on. But that doesn't mean that we feel like we have reached a plateau. In looking through this month's magazine, you will see that we have continued to work and grow. One of the most important ways that you can contribute to the expansion of our community is to give us feedback about the ways we can improve this experience for you and for future subscribers.
As more of these connections begin to spontaneously manifest, like the international session that happened last month, we have begun to envision a future in which Global Tea Hut inspires more and more community. There are already local groups meeting to share these teas every month in several countries, but we hope to inspire more and further connections between these groups. Then maybe we'll all look back at these bowls we've shared together as the beginning of amazing new travels, adventures and friendships...
