The significance of an off-hand remark made at a group lunch didn’t hit me until later.
The remark? “Tea is my favorite but I gave it up because it stains my cups.”
What hit me?
How we sometimes deprive ourselves of simple pleasures for inconsequential reasons we’ve elevated to extreme status. Why do we save things for special days or events that sometimes never happen?
Intrigued, and because I know her well, I double-backed with my lunch buddy to learn more.
“Aggie, I’m curious about your remark at lunch the other day that you don’t drink tea anymore. I thought you loved trying out new flavors.”
“I do enjoy that, but I can’t tolerate stained cups and I don’t have the time to hand scrub them.”
“When did the stained cups start to be a problem?”
“Right after we re-did the kitchen and bought new white dinnerware.”
“What color were your dishes before the remodel?”
“Black.” Aggie smiled as the realization of what she was doing hit her. “Let’s walk down to the department store so I can buy some black mugs!”
Aggie now tells a delightful story about herself: how she regained a simple pleasure by learning how to work around the things that don’t matter and to value those that do.
Have you had a similar “Aggie moment” of self-realization?
Image source: morgueFile
My “old” tea cup was the backyard lawn. It needed help 🙂 So we worked at it and it became the new tea cup (more grass!). But when the children (and their friends) tried to play their seemingly endless games of wiffle ball, the grass was in danger (stains on the tea cup, as it were). Thought about “banning” the games (no tea), but then thought better 🙂 Back to the old tea cup (less grass) with the pleasure of seeing them play!
What a great story and example of how lovely green grass nearly got in the way of loads of fun!