Birthday blessings...

I'm working on a theory that people close to God know what perfection tastes, smells, looks, and sounds like. My sweet friend Gena, an artist and counsellor, has walked me through shadowy days and sat for hours with me in waiting rooms. On my birthday she brought by a gigantic gift bag full of a collection of presents, each wrapped in a different highly saturated color of tissue paper. The next day I decided to make myself a proper tea with her birthday surprise. It's as if Mary Poppins stepped in to make it for me: A beautiful rich blue tea cup infuser that holds a perfectly generous amount of water, fragrant lavender chamomile tea with vanilla sugar, dark and milk chocolate covered cranberries and raisins, and a chai shortbread. I greedily wanted it to last forever so I topped off the tea with extra water and my cup overflowed. How appropriate.