Is there a way to reset search in Mail?
I hope someone comes up with something better than this, but…


X-out the search - this awkwardly leaves you in the now empty search box rather than in the mail list.
Select any mail in the list. [Or hit Tab until you get back into the list. Depending on how you have your tabbing set up that could be three presses, or about 10:\ ]
Press Home [or Fn/Left Arrow if you don't have a dedicated Home key]
Select the top mail.


Basically, with this method all you're gaining is the Home key-press to get you back to the top. The rest is still very manual.