Happy Mail
The doldrums* I've been stuck in for the last few weeks were partially abandoned yesterday when I came home to more happy mail in one day than I ever get, except for my birthday!
Opening these exciting packages and discovering the wonderful contents within gave me such a deep sense of joy and gratitude towards the kind friends who had so thoughtfully and appropriately chosen gifts for me and mailed them, without any special occasion needed.
The first package I opened was from my dearest family friends, MS and ES, who have been my second-string parents for as long as I can remember. It contained a wonderful screen-printed shirt with a canning jar on it that read "Yes We Can...Eat Local" and a logo for the Root Cafe. I wrote about this terrific cafe in Little Rock, AR, way back in my first week of blogging here at D&O. And I'm happy to report that the cafe has been thriving ever since, and that I now get to advertise it's awesome-ness here in Madison, with this perfect shirt. (Don't tell my other shirts, but I think this may be my new favorite shirt--the color, the softness, the fit, the canning jar [!], the story, and the ability to advertise such a worthwhile venture all make it pretty unbeatable.)
Eddie Vedder the cat also took a liking to it:
The other package was from my friend and colleague, AW, and contained a little gem of a historical pamphlet "Canned Foods Recipes for Fifty," published by the National Canners Association. It was such a delight to leaf through it and imagine who might have read this in years past, and how they might have used it. The book was from a bookstore called Rabelais in Portland, Maine, which I had read about on AW's blog a few days ago! The bookstore sounds way cool, so I was especially excited to get this little unexpected piece of the place.
Amazing what a little bit of thoughtfulness and surprise can do!
Thanks to my loveliest friends and family for thinking of me and sharing such ideal gifts. So grateful to you.
---
* I always think of them as the "colorless place where thinking and laughing are not allowed" from The Phantom Toolbooth. Remember that book?
Opening these exciting packages and discovering the wonderful contents within gave me such a deep sense of joy and gratitude towards the kind friends who had so thoughtfully and appropriately chosen gifts for me and mailed them, without any special occasion needed.
The first package I opened was from my dearest family friends, MS and ES, who have been my second-string parents for as long as I can remember. It contained a wonderful screen-printed shirt with a canning jar on it that read "Yes We Can...Eat Local" and a logo for the Root Cafe. I wrote about this terrific cafe in Little Rock, AR, way back in my first week of blogging here at D&O. And I'm happy to report that the cafe has been thriving ever since, and that I now get to advertise it's awesome-ness here in Madison, with this perfect shirt. (Don't tell my other shirts, but I think this may be my new favorite shirt--the color, the softness, the fit, the canning jar [!], the story, and the ability to advertise such a worthwhile venture all make it pretty unbeatable.)
Eddie Vedder the cat also took a liking to it:
The other package was from my friend and colleague, AW, and contained a little gem of a historical pamphlet "Canned Foods Recipes for Fifty," published by the National Canners Association. It was such a delight to leaf through it and imagine who might have read this in years past, and how they might have used it. The book was from a bookstore called Rabelais in Portland, Maine, which I had read about on AW's blog a few days ago! The bookstore sounds way cool, so I was especially excited to get this little unexpected piece of the place.
Amazing what a little bit of thoughtfulness and surprise can do!
Thanks to my loveliest friends and family for thinking of me and sharing such ideal gifts. So grateful to you.
---
* I always think of them as the "colorless place where thinking and laughing are not allowed" from The Phantom Toolbooth. Remember that book?
so exciting. MS and ES told me they were sending you a shirt from the cafe when i ran into them there this week! it is perfect! now you really have to come to AR and see the cafe, me and beckett...
ReplyDeleteYes! A perfect shirt. Can't wait to wear it to Little Rock. Maybe next summer?
ReplyDelete