An Uncommon Sweetness

I was going through a bad patch when an unexpected Amazon package arrived on my doorstep.  I opened it up to find a package of Ghirardelli Hot Chocolate packs.
It had been sent by Voiceofanangel, a local friend of mine who’d seen me struggling with depression.  And it meant a lot.  Because she’s not poor, but she’s not rich, either; the money it took to send those hot chocolate packets cost her a coffee at Starbucks, I’m sure.  It was a choice to do so, one where she gave up something to ship that package.  And she opted to make me happy out of nowhere.
I save those packets like power-ups.  Whenever I’m feeling particularly down, I put the milk in the microwave, and I open one of them like Charlie Bucket slowly peeling the foil off his Wonka bar, and I savor it.  That little blast of friendship.  A kindness from someone who did not have to.  And when I drink that hot chocolate, it is savored and it is sweet.
I can only hope that I’m paying that kindness back.  I try to send little blasts of awesome, reminders that my friends are loved, texts out of nowhere and e-cards encouraging them on hard days.  Because that, to me, is what knits the universe together – not the grand sweeps of romantic love, but the little acts of friendship that tell people, “You matter.”
You matter.  Thanks for reading me today.