Tea for Two #2

Women are like tea bags.

We don't know our true strength until we're in hot water.

-Nancy Reagan

While I was home over the weekend and after a visit with my Diddy (aka:  my father), I made a stop in the gift shop.  A woman about my own age approached me and asked, "Are you Linda Comer?"  To which I replied, "I was.  Now I'm Linda Smith."  She told me her name (which I can't remember) and said that we had gone to high school together.  Nothing about her was familiar but I asked her how life had been treating her since we'd graduated from high school.....40 years ago.

That was all it took.  She went off on a long monologue of where she'd lived, when she'd divorced each of her three husbands (and did I know them?), where her children were living and how she hadn't seen either of them or her grandchildren in months and months.  My family won't be surprised to hear that I found out just about everything there was to know about her in the course of about 10 minutes.  (I sometimes feel like I've got "Tell me your life story" tattooed on my forehead.)

She talked and talked and during it all, I just kept thinking that she looked so sad.  And I thought that she must be terribly lonely to offer so much information to someone who she hadn't seen or known in 40 years. 

I had to tell her that I was on my way back home to Augusta and that I really did need to go.  She looked even sadder when she heard that I didn't live in Columbus any longer.  She said that she thought we could have lunch or something sometime together.

As I walked away from her to my car, I felt so sorry for her.  She just didn't seem to have anything that was happy to report.  There didn't seem to be anything in her life that was truly up-lifting. 

How sad for anyone to have so little to make them happy.  I've thought of her several times in the past few days and I'm so thankful that I've got family that loves and cares about me.  I've got friends who call just to chat on the phone.  I've still got my two parents on this earth who would do anything in the world for me.  I've got a husband of over 30 years who showers me with love and attention.

I am truly blessed.

That's what I'd tell you if I could sit down and share a cup of tea with you now.  Just the two of us.

I drank my hot teas even years ago.  When the girls were little there was only one of the girls who shared my love of teas.  Jessica would have a cup of tea with me from time to time.  I can remember even fixing a real little tea party for her and one of her friends once.  Maybe more.  But these are the little tea cups I sometimes used when I shared a cup with her.  The little one is hers.  The larger one is mine.  These days, though, I often prefer to use a big old mug but the delicate tea cups are still soothing and special somehow.  Maybe one day Jessica will take my tea cups that I have and share a cup with Leah.

This is my recommended tea this week.  Lemon Zinger by Celestial Seasonings.