
Why I Pour Out the First Cup of Tea: A Friend Thought I Was Wasting Money
My friend watched me pour tea and dump the first steep. He looked horrified. Then an old man in a signless tea house in Chaozhou said one sentence that changed everything.
Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes a story I read, sometimes something that came to me while holding my mala beads.

My friend watched me pour tea and dump the first steep. He looked horrified. Then an old man in a signless tea house in Chaozhou said one sentence that changed everything.

Thirty-seven degrees. I grabbed an iced cola. My mom called and said don't. I didn't believe her until a Chinese medicine doctor said two words: "stomach cold." After 30 days of warm water, I found out my mom was right all along.

A foreign vlogger held up a Chinese dragon lantern and said it breathes fire. I paused the video. That golden dragon with deer antlers and fish scales didn't look like anything that would breathe fire. It looked more like a cloud.

A foreign vlogger held up a Chinese dragon lantern and said it breathes fire. I paused the video. That golden dragon with deer antlers and fish scales didn't look like anything that would breathe fire. It looked more like a cloud.

After moving my couch from the west wall to the east, something felt off for a week. A friend said I had a tiger behind me. That sent me into the Four Symbols — four creatures the ancients saw in the stars, and what they say about the space around us.