Drink in the View (edible poetry)

"I want to drink in that view." That's what I said to myself when I rounded the corner on my hike up the McKenzie River Trail to see a pool of such a shimmering blue it didn't look real. I was looking at what is known locally as "The Blue Pool," also called the "Tamolitch Falls Pool." This shimmering blue water is where the McKenzie River resurfaces after some time underground and as a result, it is very cold. That, combined with extraordinary clarity, is what gives this pool such an incredible blue reflection. This hike was a gift to myself: I knew that I needed the kind of medicine that only a day alone in the woods could offer, so I took the time to give that to myself. While I was there, I took in my surrounding with all of my senses; the smell of lemony wild ginger, the feel of soft moss under my feet, the splashing of the river downstream. I wanted to bottle up that moment to drink in later which, of course, is impossible. But this tea is the next best thing. :3

Blue tea made with butterfly pea flowers and an assortment of foraged wild herbs I gathered on my hike: wild ginger, cedar, fir tip, yarrow, and pipsissewa.