a shower of tea cups

Once upon a time, long long ago, in a place not too far from where I am right now, a dashing fellow fell in love with a lovely maiden  & asked her to marry him.  In course of time, the friends in his small town rejoiced in giving the fair maiden a wedding shower.  She was all excitement & anticipation.  His friends had exquisite taste & most of them were well-off & many were downright wealthy.  

As the beautiful maiden entered the marvelous mansion where all her fiance's friends & family were gathered, spread out in the grand room before her, her eyes lit on a table filled to overflowing with lovingly wrapped presents.   She noticed, to her surprise, that none were very very big.  In fact, they looked to be surprisingly uniform in size.

And well they should have - her fiance's friends threw her their very favorite sort of bridal shower.  A tea cup shower.  Each woman gave her an exquisite tea cup.  They were so happy, thinking of all the tea parties she would use them at, that she'd think about all of them every time she brought them out to use.

And she did - every time she looked at that incredible collection of tea cups, the memory of that shower came back to her all over again.   Although not in the way they expected.

She'd expected the gifts to be grand & glorious in a different way - she expected, knowing the deep pockets of most of her beloved's friends, to get very expensive presents, with each person vying to be give the greatest & most glorious.  She learned that afternoon that wasn't how this particular small town rolled.  They didn't opt for the big & splashy, but the small & meaningful.

I thought of that story twice over the past few days.  Earlier this week, as I cleared out the china cabinet  & came across a half dozen of those very tea cups, with their great & glorious pedigrees emblazoned across the bottom of each bone china cup & saucer - among them Royal Albert, Doulton, Waterford, even Tiffany.  
  

 
They came into my possession on birthday, on Christmas (once, with the original gift tag still in the box!).  My only regret was not to have been given the whole stunning collection.  

The other time this story came to mind, why I'm writing this posting, was when I came across the list of my own wedding presents.  One of the very first presents received was from a very dear friend, an exceedingly wealthy woman who could have given, without blinking, the most expensive item on my wedding gift registry.  And who gave me my very own exquisite bone china tea cup & saucer.  Do I think of her every time I look at it?  Absolutely.  With all the tender thoughts & loving memory of her special friendship & mentoring over the years.  

When that dashing fellow & lovely maiden married, almost 50 years ago, my little hometown was famous for not throwing its money around, for priding itself on giving the small & meaningful rather than the big & flashy.  In many ways, they still were when I married 25 years ago.  In many ways, they still are.  It is the personal, not the extravagant, that touches their hearts, both in giving & receiving.

Am sorry that the lovely maiden was spitting mad at the paltry haul she made that lovely afternoon.  And happy that so many of those priceless tea cups came into my possession, that I see the shining, happy faces of the women who so carefully selected & lovingly presented them.   I treasure each of them almost as much as I treasure my own, from Emilie - a shower of tea cups reminding me of a long long ago embrace of love & friendship from so many women whose faces are forever in my heart.