Hidden treasures

Sep 23 2026

A while ago, things were a little tight financially. That morning I had trimmed my grocery list striking off non-essential essentials such as tea bags. (sigh)

I found myself scrounging for change for the laundry. Junk drawer, briefcase, coat pockets all searched, turned inside out. Nothing. I pulled my beloved, red purse off the top shelf of the coat closet fingers crossed that I’d find some quarters. I rifled around. Notebook, pens, missing glove, cough drops, breath mints, tissues (clean, thankfully). No coins, but… but… tea bags! Twinings English Breakfast decaf tea bags, my absolute favorite brew. Oh, joy! Bliss.

I traveled with them everywhere since decaf black tea was hard to come by in restaurants or truck stops.

I didn’t care that they were likely well past their best-before date. I mean really, what could happen to tea bags? The crushed tea leaves would dry out… more?

I pulled them out… six… seven and under the tissues two more. Nine individually wrapped, forgotten gems. A delightful, brilliant surprise. Nine lovely mornings in my future. Laundry be damned.

Remember the delight in childhood when finding an empty discarded pop bottle could be exchanged at the corner store for a nickel bag of chips? Or that fall while preparing for the change of season discovering a wrinkled twenty in your winter coat pocket?

Or imagine finding a long-forgotten bank account with enough money in it to buy that pair of red cowboy boots you’ve been coveting. Now that’s a smile-worthy surprise.

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

……………………………………― Boris Pasternak

On my way to work one morning, I had a chuckle and a bewildered head shake when I looked up and spotted a billboard for a new Andrea Bocelli album. He was all dressed in white, in front of a deep red painted brick wall, walking towards the camera. The image is all red wall, Bocelli, and behind him beside the wall is a white Vespa. Two Italian icons. He looked for all the world as though he had just parked the Vespa by the wall and was walking away from it. Striking image. One tiny catch… Bocelli is blind.

Discovering a sweet delight breaks up the routine, kicks you off the day-to-day treadmill. Awakens the senses and several other clichés.

The nice thing is, it doesn’t have to be much. A small cache of forgotten tea bags. A twenty in a coat pocket. A billboard that makes you stop, look twice and laugh.

Not every surprise is quite so welcome, of course. Tax audits, wasps’ nests and flat tires can keep their dopamine to themselves.

Maybe the trick isn’t really to go looking for delight at all. Rather, just to leave a little room for when it turns up.

I found tea bags by rummaging. I had a laugh when looking up. Makes me wonder what else I’ve passed by without seeing.

Until next time,