Know Thyself.

The second in our series of written interviews has entered the circle. This writer is next level in my mind. I've never told her this before, I've wanted to many times, but in my awkwardness & fear of vulnerability I've always held myself back. She is a woman made up of all the elements, with a pure, unabated sense of self. Her ability to co-exist with her fire, her grounding, her water like ability to flow and adapt and her air & presence is something I don't think I've ever seen. Oozing talent whist being, well, how do I put this..... f*cking cool. I want to be her when I grow up. I digress. This piece is about Tea. What it represents and what it can do for the daily routine of a woman who is being pulled in so many directions. Mother, writer, partner, creative, provider & goddess. 1. What do you consider your most valued 'daily practice'? I’m a bit of a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl, so daily routines frequently escape me. I write schedules and timetable things all the time, but it never lasts. Maybe because of kids, maybe because of laziness, maybe because of a lot of things to be honest -who knows! But I do have one thing I do every single day: drink my morning cup of perfectly brewed tea with a splash of milk. 2. What is it about that practice that made you continue doing it as a repeated ritual? I have never had coffee before but have been drinking English breakfast tea for my entire life. Literally since I was a baby! That’s an English family for you. My morning tea is the most comforting, nourishing, joyous experience and is always there for me no matter what the previous day threw my way or what the current day has in store. It reminds me of my childhood — at one stage we’d get up early and go to markets a lot and to lure me from bed mum would make me a cup of tea in a pop-top bottle so I could drink it in the car on the way to the freezing cold market at 5am. Anyway, I digress. You know I almost think a part of my morning tea ritual is like a celebration that I am here for another day of life. I made it through yesterday, I didn’t die in my sleep and here I am having my morning tea and ready to continue on for another day. 3. What are thoughts on the phrase 'how you live your day is how you live your life' I’m uncomfortable about that phrase. I’m not a day or even a moment. We are constantly growing, changing, evolving, devolving, evolving again, fading then shining. We’re a sum of so many parts and so many minutes and hours and days and experiences and events and thoughts and feelings and perspectives and reflections and attempts and perceived successes. I don’t think one 24-hour cycle is capable of representing the complex nature of “how” anyone lives their lives. In fact, I don’t think time is linear anyway, and really the counting of days into weeks into months is all just a concept. Humans love counting stuff in life — the minutes, the days, the months, the years of our life, the amount of money we have. It’s weird isn’t it? How do you live your life is an interesting question in itself. I enjoy the idea that is should only be answered with adverbs rather than a list of your undertakings. Light-heartedly yet intensely, lovingly, self-consciously at times, generously…

4. What's something you'd like to start doing daily? I want to journal daily! I was a committed diary writer throughout my childhood and teens and love the time capsule they create. I’ve reread them as an adult and I bloody love it. Snapshots of mind’s eye, firsthand real time stream of consciousness recordings of so many stages of my evolution. I want to look back at this time and all the times to follow with the same curiosity and fondness for each version of myself. I want to remember every ounce of living I do, even or perhaps especially the seemingly mundane. An exercise in narcissism? Maybe. But as Socrates once said, ‘To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom’. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I got goosebumps when Ami sent me this. For my 27th birthday I was gifted my birth chart and the woman who created it wrote on the top 'Know Thyself' - Socrates. When I saw it in the last line of the interview, I knew it was a special piece of writing and that I was meant to choose Ami to join us in this space. After reading it, I invite you to reflect on the experience you have when you drink something. There is a practice that Marina Abramovic teaches about how to drink water, how to acknowledge the 'nourishing of your cells'- and I think the same can be said about a morning cup of tea. Video: Marina Abramovic: How to Drink a Glass of Water

Daily Ceremony acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land we work on, and we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging.