1: “Risks are worth taking. Mistakes are worth making.” Said the wise tea

He had been standing there for a while now, possibly for a few months. He had arrived with a friend sometime when the sun’s hottest from a foreign land and I had, or so I had thought, listened to what he had to say and kept him close by, because I knew I would eventually once again need to hear his wise, unselfish council.
But like an ancient statue, his meaning forgotten though still intact, he stood there for months, watching me sometimes forget and sometimes struggle to uphold what I had once deemed as a sign of reassurance for that necessary change to come, of finally shedding this old skin which every now and then still insists in making its presence be felt and which so hinders and threatens the pursuit of happiness.
And so the days passed by until the time came where circumstances would have his latent aura become present once more.

I had seen “it” - for at first it was somehow beyond me to even fully grasp a notion of her face - walking down the narrow stretch a few times, wondering what this “it” actually was that as the days went by kept drawing ever more to my attention. To this day I am still trying to understand its nature, past the beauty of those eyes alive with dreams and wonder, this nature which like a mysterious yet benign fog leads you to be lost and that prevents me from engraving her face in my mind leaving me only with a faint memory of her scent, and a blurry but unmistakable imprint of her beautiful intangible self.

So it was that slowly, through coincidence or fate, she burned some of her essence onto mine and the decision had to be taken whether to follow my heart’s intended footsteps or whether to listen to the voice of that vague and partial yet effective ancient universal figure that like a mighty marble monument sits in his court within all men.

It was then that he awoke, and without saying a word or making the slightest move, he fell into my eyes, briefly revealing his wisdom as though he had been constantly by my side, knowing that it was the precise moment. Quietly, calmly, he spoke into my soul with a gentle but assertive tone setting my inner voice ablaze with content, unleashing in a fleeting moment a warm glow that invaded me.

In that very instant I knew that no matter however many bruises I could stand to attain, something extremely pure, unique and beautiful beyond description would come of it. I knew, because in that very moment when it was born the presence of its mere origin shattered the marble figure’s imposing throne. And the promise of something that great was worth risking everything.

From then on I no longer lived in the same plain. It was and still is all unchartered territory, filled with uncertainty and surprises, a lovely place where magic and reality coincide.

Where we go remains to be seen.

But I’m glad to be here.

And it all started with a bit of tea.