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Muffins and Mayhem, Recipes for a Happy (if disorderly) Life
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Dear Reader,
"You never forget my birthday. You're so good at remembering birthdays, I'm not."
My friend was delighted with the chocolate covered strawberries I'd sent for her birthday, but she was letting a feeling of shame, that she doesn't remember friends' birthdays, steal her joy. "Devour another one of those chocolate covered strawberries," I told my friend, "and savor each bite with joy. Because if everyone remembered other people's birthdays, then it wouldn't be special that I remembered yours, would it?"
Everyone has a calling on this earth, things they're drawn to do because they seem like such a natural fit. Some of mine are baking chocolate chip cookies and handing them out to friends and strangers, turning on a bubble machine in my yard, inviting friends to a Thanksgiving dinner three or four times a year, bringing along a brainstorming hat--a fancy hat with lace and pearls--for each person to wear in a meeting at the library, displaying a wedding dress in my bathroom, writing a daily column about my personal feelings, the good stuff and the not so good, and remembering birthdays. Doing these things brings joy to my life, and who knows, maybe they're the main ingredient for my own happiness.
But like my friend, occasionally when I'm on the receiving end of "something special" that someone did for me, I start thinking the same thoughts, 'I should, but I'm not good at remembering to do that . . .' But if I did, if everyone remembered to do it, then it wouldn't feel special would it?
* If you'd like to be on the receiving end of some of my homemade cookies, there's still time to enter this month's Chocolate Chip Cookies Giveaway. See past happy winners, munching and dunking and enter, go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cookie-1111.html
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Warmest regards,
Suzanne Beecher
[email protected]
http://www.muffinsandmayhem.com/
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