image from google
I read Nene's Reading Tea Leaves over at Life Whispers just now, and it took me back to having tea with my Grandma when I was a kid. Thanks, Nene, for the trip down Memory Lane!
Grandma was proud of being Irish,
her mother coming to the Prairies
straight from County Cork.
In the afternoons,
we'd have tea,
and then turn our cups
upside down
in the pretty Baleek saucers.
"Turn your cup around three times,"
Grandma would intone portentously,
her eyes twinkling,
giving me that Grandma smile,
and we'd turn:
one, two, three.
Then we'd peer into the bottoms of our cups.
I was always looking
for Home,
for good luck,
and for Love.
What I got were
donkeys, women pushing wheelbarrows
and the occasional bird.
A bird was very lucky.
When I was a teen,
Grandma had the fortune-telling game
called Gong Hee Fot Choy.
You thought about your wish
as you shuffled the deck
and, the weird thing was,
it really worked.
The cards foretold it coming true,
and I suppose,
in the end,
it really did,
though never in the ways
I once had dreamed.
More like a combined nightmare/
comedy of errors,
but in the end I can say
home, good luck and love
each, in their time,
found me
and left me
all the richer
for passing through.
Oh, you just know I love this post, Sherry! Few things are nicer than afternoon tea, and my own grandmother was known to read tea leaves.
ReplyDeleteIn Ireland we started on tea at an early age, slurping it out of saucers in small sips as it cooled...started me on my road to becoming a full-fledged tea-granny! And I love the image you chose...I have a few pieces of that Belleek in my collection...:)
yes, how strangely our dreams with granny look when coming true
ReplyDeleteWishing YOU Aloha, from Waikiki
Comfort Spiral
> < } } ( ° >
I love taking tea ... and have not in awhile, no taste I dare say is one reason. We would enjoy tea together. I am not writing ... will let you know when I post.
ReplyDeleteI love taking tea ... and have not in awhile, no taste I dare say is one reason. We would enjoy tea together. I am not writing ... will let you know when I post.
ReplyDeleteWhat lovely memories, and how tenderly you describe them.
ReplyDeleteLovely memories dear ~ Despite the comedy of errors, love and home will find us ~
ReplyDeleteHow touching and how lucky you are Sherry! A mentor and companion from a young age was such a big advantage. I bet there would have been a lot of anecdotes shared. It would have made one all the richer. Interestingly, Gong Xi Fa Chai (variously spelt in different ways) means 'Happy Chinese New Year' It was a celebration all the time with Grandma, then!
ReplyDeleteWonderful write, Ma'am!
Hank
i like the lucky bird best of all. all the richer, too.
ReplyDeletehope you are having a great weekend:)
We get to where we are because of where we've been, don't we?.
ReplyDeleteYour Grandma sounds like one of life's lovely, rich characters. I had an aunt once who read tea leaves and cards and things. This was another lovely read Sherry.
I think that is how it is...wishes do come true, but never in the way we think...be careful, be very careful!
ReplyDelete