Today is my mom's birthday. To set the scene, this woman loves birthdays. When I was growing up, she even made me a "half cake" for my half birthday, and even now that I'm in my 30s, she never fails to buy me multiple presents and call me on the morning of my birthday to sing to me. Even the year that my grandma (her mother) passed away 3 days before my 30th birthday, she selflessly put aside her own grieving to make the day special for me.
Couple that with the fact that she lives 350 miles away, I wanted to do something this year to make her feel extra special. I started with my normal routine, picking out a lipstick shade I knew she'd love from Sephora and choosing the best card Target had to offer. But then, something propelled me to take it a step further. I was thinking about sending flowers to her office, but then an even better idea struck me: cupcakes!
My mom loves cupcakes, especially the extra pretty and delicious ones from Georgetown cupcake. Every time she visits here, we swing by for a sweet treat (I definitely got my sweet tooth from my mother), and many visits home, a pink box sits snuggly on my backseat as I make the 6 hour drive. I learned that I could ship a dozen cupcakes to her, overnight at a pretty reasonable price. I had fun choosing which flavors she would enjoy, and set it up to be delivered to her work.
Waiting a week for her birthday to arrive was like waiting for Christmas as a kid! I had really been downplaying my gift to her via text & the phone, so she hopefully would be completely surprised. Though I'm notoriously not a morning person, I woke up this morning and literally couldn't wait to hear from her. I was obsessively checking the UPS tracking number, and had my cell phone prominently placed so I wouldn't miss a peep.
Around 1pm, she called, and I knew immediately from her tear-filled voice that she was very happy. And, my own heart swelled. Doing something like this for her made me even happier than if I'd received the cupcakes myself. And, it really made me think about the little things I can do for others in my day to day life – offering to go get coffee for a coworker, calling my grandparents, doing the dishes after dinner without the "who's turn is it?" conversation, and being kind to the people I interact with on a daily basis. Oftentimes, when we are feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or sad, connecting with the outside world makes the biggest impact.
And now, I think I might need to go get myself a cupcake.
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