Reprise: Teaching Tea

Joanna DeRungs

Joanna DeRungs, a native Oregonian, has been involved with tea, horses, communication, and leadership most of her life. She worked with horses and intuitive natural horsemanship on a family farm as a girl, honing her communication and leadership skills. Later she used those same skills (written, verbal, and non-verbal communication and natural leadership) to advance through the corporate legal and technical world. She founded a technical and business consulting firm in 1993 to help professionals with their new electronic tools and bring their communications into the digital age. While leading the success of her firm for over 15 years, she felt there was more she could do. After buying and restoring a farm, she returned to work with horses, studying the field of Equine Assisted Experiential Learning. She then added her own element of experiential tea and food tastings. Joanna has found a way to help others take steps toward regaining their authentic nature and build an awareness of their own internal communication tools through the development of Natural Whisperings (SM), a company centered on experiential work with people, tea, food, and horses (NaturalWhisperings.com). Although to some this may seem an unlikely combination, she says the same experiential work can be accomplished regardless of the partner. “Some people are less intimidated by a cup a tea and a plate of beautifully prepared food than by a 1,000 pound horse, but it all works out the same in the end.” During this process, poetry began to flow while Joanna was enjoying her morning cup of tea. She won her first tea poetry contest in 2009 and has not put her pen down since. She writes nature-inspired, reflective, and tea-inspired poetry, which she shares with us on T Ching.