There is a Japanese legend that mixes fact with fiction and bespeaks a universal truth.
Hope, perseverance, and a Master who will not give up on any of us.
Taking the box with excitement and carefully opening the wooden lid, he brushed away the straw to reveal a silken drawstring bag. With quiet anticipation, he pulled apart the cords and slid out the object for which he had waited so long. The stillness was palpable.
With studied composure, his eyes narrowed and then closed. Would he forever regret that day? Would its memory continue to haunt him?
Cradling the tea bowl to his lips, he had sipped slowly. The warmth comforted. His breathing slowed.
It was the late 15th century, and this tradition, this tea, this room, and this bowl, grounded Japan’s supreme military leader. The Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa carried his inherited position with dignity, but war wasn’t in his soul.
It was here, for a few moments each day, that he could find respite from the decisions that pressed him down. Strategy, lives in the balance, power-plays. Longing for peace, his mind wandered.
Hot liquid and ceramic flew, as the
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