Matt’s Cuppa

I was sitting at a table at Emerald Loop last Friday with a boatload of bloggers when Thomas sat down and introduced himself. He noted that I wasn’t drinking and asked what I prefer instead of alcohol. “Well,” I responded, “I prefer a really good tea.” “What kind?” he pressed. I took a deep breath and began to tell him about Runglee Rungliot.

Runglee Rungliot is a tea garden high in the Darjeeling region of India, and also the name of the tea produced there. I was first introduced to this tea nearly a decade ago and have yet to be disappointed, assuming it is properly brewed. The name Runglee Rungliot is translated as something like, “Thus far and no further,” referring to the garden’s situation at top of a mountain. Now, if one were to take one of these tea plants and plant it anywhere other than this garden at the top of this mountain, it would not produce the same tea. In fact, it would most likely produce dreadful tea. In short, it would no longer be Runglee Rungliot.

I realized as I was speaking that we each have our own personal Runglee Rungliot. We each have our mountain to climb and somewhere near the top of our mountain is a garden where we produce our best, whatever that best may be. There’s a place up there where the soil is perfect and the temperature is just right, and rainclouds cling to the mountain side in just the right way.

It’s up there, but we have to climb our mountain to find it. In today’s world it’s not easy to make that climb. The news media, politicians, and product marketers all want you to climb their mountain. So many distractions exist that get in the way and confuse us into thinking we’re hiking up the right slope when we’re really not.

It’s up to us to look deep inside ourselves, to see the shape of the mountain at our core. The mountain represents the landscape created by our unique combination of skills and abilities and talents and beliefs. All these culminate, at the top of a steep climb, in the right conditions for you to become You.

This was a bit of a sweeping vista of a thought to have while sitting in an Irish pub talking to someone I’d met less than five minutes ago. It’s what we’re all struggling for in life, though, to find our mountain and to stand on its peak looking down at how far we’ve come. We each have our own personal garden up there– our very own Runglee Rungliot– It’s up to us to make the climb.

Popularity: 15% [?]