I recently received an unexpected gift in the mail.

And in person…

And in several persons…

But first, it began with a cup of tea.

___________________________________________

I spend more than my fair share of time complaining.

(If you hear maniacal laughter following that statement, you may be one of my friends. Try not to choke.)

I like to think of it as sharing unwanted angst with the world in a humorous fashion. (You’re welcome.) But honestly, my default setting is to gripe about everything and nothing under the sun.*

My friends tend to be not only aware of this tendency, but also to be teflon-coated with tolerance and forgiving of nature. (It’s why I have any friends at all.)

But recently, I managed to notice something else about my friends; they are honestly nice people and likely better than I deserve.

During a terrible week where everything was going wrong…I receive a box of tea in the mail. I drank it all before I realized this was the start of a trend.

Another friend of mine makes an effort to stop by, chat, and generally share news about our mutual joys and trials in parenting on the autism spectrum. At one such visit, she hands me a decorative bag.

“Oh, and I saw this at the Marketplace tea shop downtown and thought of you.”

She hands me the lovely gift bag with probably the best tasting Earl Grey I’ve found, ever, and this:

 

I was flabbergasted and touched.

“But what made you think of this?” I asked.

“You posted on Facebook about running out of tea bags.” Says my friend.

I immediately added Spice & Tea Merchants to my list of places to look for more of the lovely Moonlight Earl Grey.

I attempt to be gracious in my acceptance, but I am almost speechless with wonder every time someone shows me kindness. (It’s like they are trying to prove me wrong about the world. How dare they?)

Not long after this incident, I schedule a girl’s night at The Mud Room in Grand Rapids and opt to design a mug with a rubber lid so I can travel with a cup of tea beside me. For often I am mid-car ride somewhere with the kid and wishing heartily for a nice hot cuppa.**

But before my delightfully fishy attempt at art can be glazed…a package comes by mail.

Inside I find this:

Now this friend regularly sends me care packages, but this largesse came with an much-anticipated copy of Dreyer’s English and an equally unexpected companion novel: A Gentleman in Moscow. I believe said friend has higher literary expectations of me due to my snobbish delight in tea. I would hate to disappoint her and, to be honest, she’s been chortling like a mad woman while reading me excerpts of Dreyer’s. I will have to read it just so I can keep up.

So, I am now the proud owner of three new tea cups and several tea samples that I ordered from Harney & Son’s to attempt to recreate a mysterious tea I once drank in a long ago establishment that no longer exists in days of yore.***

And last, but not least, today a care package came all the way from Japan:

Be prepared to be amazed and dazzled at my upcoming posts which will cover the exhaustive search for Tea Compost (which is the word my brain keeps giving me instead of the much more attractive and accurate Custom Tea blend) as well as the un-ironic experience of attending a Mud Room intended for children’s birthday parties with a gaggle of adult friends.

Will mud be thrown? You’ll have to tune in to find out.

As it stands, let’s marvel at the injustice that some people have all sorts of good things happen to them even when they’ve done nothing to deserve it.

And it’s really nice when it happens to you.

Thanks.

Asterisk Bedazzled Footnotes:

*I originally typed “…I gripe about everything and nothing under the son.” I suspect this was more than a Freudian slip…this was more along the lines of a Freudian avalanche.

**And if any of you thought: “Yeah, a nice hot cup of tea to throw at him.” Shame on you! I would never abuse tea that way.

***It was all Ye Olde Worlde–A.F.  Please don’t tell my mother what the acronym A. F. stands for. I plan to tell her it means “All’s Fabulous” and see if I can get her to misuse it.