The backstory…
I didn’t want to register for wedding gifts. I’m so not good at “asking for things” and that’s what a wedding registry feels like to me. I’m also not good at picking things out on the spot (unless, of course, it’s really something that just knocks me off my feet). I figure you need to get married and get into a space together before you will really know what type of things you want and/or need.
Reluctantly AND under compulsion from one of my sweet sisters (thanks Michelle), I registered. I remember that day in Macy’s. I was irritable. Our Macy’s registry was quite small by wedding registry standards – filled with bath sheets and kitchen stuff. And then it happened. We finally stumbled across one thing that turbo charged my excitement. A tea set… My sister knew my desire to host tea parties for women and encouraged me to register for it. I picked out a girly pattern of teacups and saucers and just about all the “accessories.” I’m pretty sure I saw my heart doing cartwheels and happy dances in the aisle of the china department.
Fast forward to my visit to The Garden. I knew I wanted to do something special for the women there. A tea party was what I had in mind. A tea party where I shower them with gifts and food of some sort, for no other reason than to encourage them and to let them know they are loved. Here was my opportunity to start pouring into someone else and somehow dig myself out of the hole I’d been in, a hole so narrow all I seemed to be able to do was focus on me and my sorrow.
So I shared with the administrator my desire to host a tea party for the ladies of The Garden, and she welcomed it immediately. As it turned out, a group had recently hosted a tea party for the children, yet it was the women who really desired to have one. Sweet confirmation…
To be continued…