When Marcus Aurelius coined that phrase I'm pretty sure he wasn't talking about gingerbread; he was probably talking about the way each and every day can provide unexpected value we can see as positive in our lives. It's a nice way to think, positive over negative, and I think it could cause a person to actively seek out those gifts their day might provide; I know I do. Yesterday though...the gift was a little more tangible, and I didn't have to seek too far to find it.
I arrived home after a pretty full-on day at work, not a bad day as I secured a rather big momentous new national client that's going to be very good for revenue, but very busy though. Anyway, I parked my vehicle at home and moved to the front door as always and...
Gingerbread
I found a little basket, complete with a bow on the handle, on the door mat. After checking it wasn't a bomb I picked it up and saw it also had a note attached, a little card. Curious, I went to open it then remembered I was standing at my front door so entered, bringing the non-bomb basket with me. As I did so, a glorious smell wafted from the basket and, because I'm attuned to such things, I knew exactly what it was.
I put my stuff down, eager to get to the gingerbread in that basket note attached to the basket and smiled broadly when I read it.
I'm not telling you what it said, nor whom it was from but it was sweet [like gingerbread] and it made my heart melt just a little to know I have such beautiful people in my life. I opened the container the basket held and was hit by the amazing sight and smell of little gingerbread people. Ah yes, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar, come at me, I need you!
Those little gingerbread men smelled wondrous...although looked a little fucken wonky. They all seemed to look rather sad actually, grumpy, evil or just weird with one eye bigger than the other, I think it's the set of the mouths and the googly fucken eyes, but here's the thing...I thought they were perfect...just like the person who left them for me.
That person isn't much of a baker although has been experimenting lately. A declaration of intent was announced a few weeks back, the intention to make a gingerbread house for Christmas this year, and there has been some trial-recipes attempted to find the perfect one; a few failures later and along comes these little gingerbread men and...they tasted bloody amazing, despite looking a little fucked up. I wasn't sure at first, about the taste...so I had a second. Still I wasn't sure though, so I made a coffee and had a third...After the fifth [or sixth or seventh] one I was convinced. Come on, they're only small and I had to test for continuity of legitness.
Coming home to gingerbread men is always going to be a homecoming worthy of celebration.
Coming home to gingerbread men handmade by this person, accompanied by the note, is something altogether different. It was one of those gifts that Marcus Aurelius talks about in the quote above and it made my day; Hmm...considering I'll be eating gingerbread for about a week I guess I could say it made my week!
Have you ever come home to a surprise gift waiting for you? Maybe you were the gift giver? Maybe you received a gift and wanted to reciprocate - what did you gift in return and why? This is my conundrum right now actually, what do I do in return? I've got a few ideas, none I'll mention here though. Feel free to comment below if you'd like to, I'm keen to hear about your surprise gift giving or receiving.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind
Any gingerbread man images in this post were taken by me and no gingerbread man was harmed in the making of this post...and if you believe that you're bonkers, I fucken ate that little dude about three seconds after taking the photo. Also, yeah I know, the one in this image looks exactly like me...when I'm grumpy or giving someone the, what-the-fuck, look, or when I'm sad that there's no more gingerbread left, or when...well, just always I guess.