A Year of Gratitude – April 22, 2024
I found my gratitude in my coffee cup today. I was thankful for the hot coffee inside the cup and the warm memory that the outside of the cup helped to conjure up.
It was brisk and windy outside, but the sun was shining brightly this morning as I sat at the kitchen table to do a bit of paperwork. Penny Lane was at my feet under the table. We were both happy to have a patch of sunshine warming us up on that bit of floor. My feet were warm in that bright sunshine. Penny was warm enough that she drifted off to sleep with her head on my foot.
As I worked, I sipped my coffee. It was hot and delicious, a welcome treat on such a blustery morning. I was going about my work, making progress through the stack of papers on the table and emails on my laptop.
When I reached a good place to stop, I did. As I reached out to grab my cup, I smiled at the recipe printed on it. I had a pair of these mugs made last year for my mom and I. They proudly display a recipe that was my grandmother’s, my mom’s mom. This recipe is in her handwriting. It was one of her favorites.
When I was creating the design for these mugs, I wondered if I should “clean” it up. I could have made the recipe card more perfect. I could have removed the stain that I am sure was created when she made this recipe one of the hundreds of times she made it for us to enjoy together.
In the end, I chose not to. That stain, those imperfections, are what make it such a treasure. It’s as if her fingerprints are still on it thanks to those blemishes. Removing them would take so much of what I love about it away.
As I grabbed my mug to take a sip of coffee, I was reminded of how lucky I was to have had her in my life. It was nice to think of her in that moment, to fondly think of this recipe and how much she loved to make it for us.
I know that my love to cook and bake for my family was shaped by her. Both of my grandmothers and my mom played such an important role in teaching me how rewarding it is to make something for someone you love.
They taught me that you could bake love right into a recipe and gift it to the people you love. They showed me how good it felt to be the recipient of that sort of love. They reminded me that effort spent to make something with your hands that brings comfort and love is the very best sort of effort. It’s the kind that warms your heart as much as it does the heart of the person you share it with.
I’m so grateful that I had them in my life to teach me those lessons, to give me such loving examples. I’m also incredibly grateful to have such warm food memories of the recipes they made for me. All these years later, they are with me every day.
This post is part of our A Year of Gratitude Series. You can find the introduction, inspiration, and entire year’s gratitude’s posts here.