Saturday, August 29, 2009

The Gift

I wrote a while ago about a swap I was involved in... to be sent close to June 15th... and I did so diligently, within a day or 2 of the supposed mailing date. And I wondered about the lady that would be getting mine, would she love it? Would she listen to the cd? Make something special with the pearls?

And I wondered what would be sent to me, too. I was excited about getting mail - especially mail that is not a bill, or a flyer, or a parking ticket reminder... but a gift. A gift from a stranger, no less!

And I waited...

....and waited....

...and waited.

And after about a month and a half, I gave up. Its easy to get caught up in everyday life, and decide not to participate in something that you thought might be fun, so maybe the person who was doing my trade had just decided not to...

but I waited a little longer....

....some more time passed...

...and then

...2 months and 2 days after the "mail by" date, after returning from running some errands, as I was chatting to a neighbour in my building, the postie walked past me, and out of the front door, carrying a big plastic wrapped red package. I continued my conversation with my neighbour, and the postie made his way out to the Canada Post truck. Shortly after, I made my way upstairs to my front door. There, on the door handle, was his "I missed you when I tried to deliver a parcel to you" note!!

So I waited until the next day, after 1:00pm (as per the instructions) to go to the laundromat at the nearby plaza to pick up my parcel. With barely a thought of the swap left I was hypothesizing about what was in the box... had I ordered those shoes I had fancied online after all? Was it a birthday gift?? Its coming soon... so it could be? Hmmm...

I picked up the parcel, and it had been super-duper wrapped by someone at the postal service... the box was held together by a few small patches of unbroken cardboard, pieces of shredded paper sticking out of it from various holes. The box was stamped Royal Post, (hmmmm... from ENGLAND??!?!) and as I pulled my way through the tough outer plastic, I was looking to see who it was from.

I opened the box, and there, in the midst of all the shredded packing paper, were several packages wrapped in hot pink tissue paper.

I opened the first one... a cd - Music From My Life
...and the second, a small tin that says "Time for Tea" on the outside of it, and contains teabags. The third one was a package of shortbread, handmade... with REAL butter! There were 3 post cards, and a 4th with the sender's favourite quote. There were 2 beautiful English house and home magazines. And a beautiful porcelain teacup and saucer.




And perhaps you can guess what happened next?

I filled the kettle,
put on the cd,
made a cup of tea from the earl grey teabags that were sent,
sat in my comfiest chair,
put my feet up,
opened the shortbread,
and picked up the postcard that was written on...

and it said:

"All will be well
And all will be well
And all manner of things will be well"
(Julian of Norwich)


Thank you, Carole from England, for the beautiful gift you sent. I have enjoyed it so many times over... and I think of you when I listen to the cd you compiled, and I wonder what you are like...
what your life has been like, and what part each of the songs has played in your life.

...and all certainly was well, and delicious, and relaxing, and inspiring, and thoroughly enjoyable.


Thank you so much, Carole!

2 comments:

URBAN GYPSY said...

nice piece erika

Anonymous said...

Dear Erika. Thank you for the lovely card I am so glad my parcel finally arrived, I posted it on the day chosen but had no idea it would take so long to arrive. I wonder what adventures it had on its way to Canada. But as the quote says all is well and I am so happy that you enjoyed the contents. It was my first swap and I to had a lovely parcel. I would be interested to know what tracks you knew?. Good luck in Vancouver and it would be lovely to keep in touch.
Best wishes
Carol
PS I have a blog now katiecountymouse@wordpress.com