Mother's Day: Past, "presents" and future

Six years of celebrating Mother's Day at Goldfish Tea

On Mother's Day we continued with our annual tradition of meeting at Goldfish Tea. This Royal Oak tea room, with its comfy seating, amazing tea and tasty fare is the perfect place for a family gathering and we've been spending our second Sunday in May here for the last six years.

Azaleas, orchid and charming tea bag card.

This year was really a look at past, "presents" and future. Starting our afternoon at Goldfish, we filled up on sweets, savories and pots of Keemun tea. I was the recipient of an enviable treasure bath consisting of an azalea tree bursting with beautiful, bright pink blossoms (Blumz does great work!) from Matt,  and a delicate, very pretty orchid plant housed in an adorable porcelain tiny teacup, courtesy Rachel. Also, a precious tea bag-themed card that is destined to be framed.

Tea Leaf Reading Kit

From Rob, I received a peak into the future - and a whole lot of fun - with a Tea Leaf Reading kit (TOPS Malibu). It has been a lot of fun learning more about this ancient art. I'm often asked about it at tea events, so I was anxious to see what it's all about. For more on this cool kit and what it takes to read tea leaves, please check out Tea Leaf Reading: Meditative, Creative and Fun in The Detroit Examiner.

Partial city view from Matt's balcony

That sums up the future and presents, but the visit to the past came later that afternoon.  Matt recently moved into an apartment in downtown Detroit and he took us all down for the grand tour after tea. He's in the heart of the revitalized city and from his balcony you can get a glimpse of Belle Isle, the Detroit River (if you squint), Ford Field and the Michigan Building. The latter was not only one of the film sites featured in the movie "Eight Mile", but once the home of a credit card processing center where, as a young graduate student/assistant-to-the auditor, I met my husband, Chris, a six-year "veteran" of the business and systems programmer at the senior age of twenty-six.

 Michigan Building where it all began

That was over thirty-three years ago (having just celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary this week) and we hadn't been back to that building in three decades. After soaking in the amenities of Matt's place, we took the elevator ride down to the lobby and made a short jaunt around the corner to the Michigan Building.

Not much had changed in thirty years except it was clearly less occupied. Chris and I were deja-vu-ing in a setting that was a bit surreal. Did Mr. Peabody just hearken us to 1983 in the WABAC machine? Hard to imagine us being that young, let alone thinking that some thirty years after meeting, one of our children would be living across the street.

That would have been one cup of tea leaves to have predicted that!

An enjoyable Mother's Day of past, presents and future.