Losing

My mother-in-law gave me and her son a beautiful teacup and saucer with a plant arrangement inside it.  Eventually the plants died back and I took the arrangement apart, tape from the saucer to hold the cup in place, dead flowers and leaves, a green flower-arranging sponge in the cup’s bottom.  This left the saucer empty.  

Empty is how I felt because the gift was in sympathy.  We had lost a pregnancy.

I think of this teacup and saucer sometimes.  The cup was beautiful, with flowers painted on its sides.  I seem to remember a decorative silver rim around the saucer and the cup but I can never be sure.  I asked my husband if I could throw it away because it made me sad to look at it.  He did not hesitate to agree.

Years later I began my own business and I sold gift certificates as part of it.  For no extra charge I would put something extra in the packaging.  One of the first times I did this it was with teacups and saucers, found at thrift stores and yard sales.  I preferred ones with flowers on them and rims of silver.

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Now for the reflective questions which you can journal about or if you'd like to share your story, I'd love to hear from you and the community would love to hear from you!  Your comment could have a major impact on someone else; most likely it will be just the right thing at the right time for one of the readers. For me, God* wanted me to know that helping even just one person is wonderfully impactful.

Reflective questions:
1.  Is there a loss, once too painful to look at, that you can view now from a different lens?

2.  What does God* want you to know about this (ask directly, God, what do you want me to know?)

* I use the term God as a universal term.  You may decide that Great Spirit, Allah, Higher Power, etc. better suits you today.  It is not for me to decide.

Photo by MH of fallen tree in Pennypack