A Salami Day and a Taste of Licorice

As I sit here, combining mulling over the day, finishing my seminary lesson and blogging all at the same time (and they say multitasking isn't all that productive-feh!), I am sipping a new herbal tea that is licorice flavored. I am one of those fairly rare individuals that seek out black jelly beans, chew whole anise seeds, and really enjoy old-fashioned black licorice candies when I can find them. For me then, this tea is a wonderful night-time treat. Just a little something slightly sweet and flavorful to help me with my constant food cravings-and actually delicious in the bargain. Some herb teas just don't taste like anything to me, but I like the idea of a light, soothing, low-calorie something to use as a ritual at the end of the day, and I've reached for those teas, both bland and not, for a lot of years. This one is a keeper. Mmm.

Before this nice moment happened, however, there was the sort of day which was made for a cup of tea-a day that needs this kind of slow moment to fix all the memories in the mind. To the uninformed observer, it was just a regular spring day-unpromisingly rainy in the morning, beautifully sunny and breezy in the afternoon. I was busy with all my usual routine-all good, nothing stressful-so it was destined to be a pretty good day no matter what. But there in the middle, just as the clouds were giving way to the sun, and burnishing a pretty good day to one with a sweet rosy glow around it, there were the 2 lovely hours I spent with my friend doing nothing fancier than eating yummy salami sandwiches, laughing, looking at pictures and just well, the only word I can think of is, delighting in each other. We talked about everything except all of the many business-y, administrative-y, thingstodolist-y stuff that we could have talked about. Instead it was books and family and food and memories and the remembered touch of a new baby's skin. I feel refreshed, loved, happy, lucky, ageless, blessed and about a hundred other magical things. Who knew that salami could do all that, eh? So much of what happens in my life and every other woman's life is giving-giving-giving. Its what we're made for and I'm not complaining, but I was feeling a little empty. I reached out to my pal and bless her, she welcomed me to her cozy home for a favorite treat and made a space where we could just be for a little while and then end up enriched rather than spent.

By the way, that salami is on sale at Weis right now. Do you need a Salami Day?