Folded and almost flat lay the small flat rate box in my otherwise empty mailbox. For a moment I hesitated to take it out. My mind was quickly filling in the blanks the questionable package was presenting.
The return address was that of my sister who has been sharing my birthday with me ever since she decided to be born on the day I turned one. The label slapped unceremoniously across the top of the box had two of the little boxes checked: RECEIVED WITHOUT CONTENTS and RECEIVED UNSEALED AT 27406.
I would find out during our traditional birthday phone call to each other that my sister had actually made me a gift this year. I found this remarkable since I had decided to send her gifts I had made as well. This may not seem all that amazing to others but to us it is a strange connection we have that enables us to give each other similar gifts each year. One year we sent each other chocolates; another year, cookies. We have sent each other earrings and other accessories, but regardless of the gift of choice for that year, we usually have the same type of gift in mind.
Though not twins we were treated as such during our childhood years and were often expected to wear matching clothes and have our hair cut in the same way. I always had a difficult time with this as her brown hair and brown eyes were nothing like my red hair and blue eyes, and I wanted to grow my hair long. I also did not appreciate having to wear the same outfit in a different color. I was not allowed to wear red or pink for fear those colors would clash with my hair so I would be sporting the green or blue version of whatever it was she was wearing. This apparently entertained our mother as we would draw attention wherever we went as though we really were twins. But of course we were not. Irish twins, at best.
What my mother did get right was letting each one of us have our own cake. This was a good thing since my sister always chose angel food which to this day I have no desire to eat. It tastes bitter to me and no amount of whipped cream is going to change that. I would always choose devil's food, ironically, and could not understand why this would not win over my sister. Who does not adore chocolate?! I even proposed a compromise in which we could have white or yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but that was never acceptable. So we would pose for pictures with our two cakes and my parents would sing the birthday song completely out of tune as they continue to do over the phone to this day.
Back to the mystery at hand. At some point I wondered what the earrings were like that my sister told me she had made. Not wanting to belabor the point of the empty box, the amount of time and money with no gift attached, I did not continue my line of questioning. My imagination was left to wander to the exact moment that the package contents would have dropped out--maybe because she did not tape the box? She wondered if the glue was loosened because of the heat since we are both Southerners these days but upon further inspection I noticed it was not the side of the box that was sealed with the self-sealing strip that was opened but the ends that could easily be opened by someone wishing to investigate the contents of the box. Maybe that was it! Maybe my birthday earrings were stolen! And if so, by whom?!
Where do missing contents from small flat rate boxes shipped through the postal service end up? Is there a large lost and found in the corner of some nondescript room in the back of a post office? Do the postal workers go through the items and claim whatever looks good to them when there is no possibility of ever matching the items with the recipient? Are these renegade items, God forbid, thrown away?
Another birthday has come and gone. Remembered by some and forgotten by others, it is always a surprise as to who will end up in each category. It is a day filled with unexpected happenings that bring a measure of joy, undeniable disappointment and the ever present challenge it takes to truly celebrate the life of another. Like a box, emptied of its contents, my birthday wish is to go into this next year open to experiencing life with a joyful heart, an expectant spirit and enough love to cover over a multitude of disappointments.
The return address was that of my sister who has been sharing my birthday with me ever since she decided to be born on the day I turned one. The label slapped unceremoniously across the top of the box had two of the little boxes checked: RECEIVED WITHOUT CONTENTS and RECEIVED UNSEALED AT 27406.
I would find out during our traditional birthday phone call to each other that my sister had actually made me a gift this year. I found this remarkable since I had decided to send her gifts I had made as well. This may not seem all that amazing to others but to us it is a strange connection we have that enables us to give each other similar gifts each year. One year we sent each other chocolates; another year, cookies. We have sent each other earrings and other accessories, but regardless of the gift of choice for that year, we usually have the same type of gift in mind.
Though not twins we were treated as such during our childhood years and were often expected to wear matching clothes and have our hair cut in the same way. I always had a difficult time with this as her brown hair and brown eyes were nothing like my red hair and blue eyes, and I wanted to grow my hair long. I also did not appreciate having to wear the same outfit in a different color. I was not allowed to wear red or pink for fear those colors would clash with my hair so I would be sporting the green or blue version of whatever it was she was wearing. This apparently entertained our mother as we would draw attention wherever we went as though we really were twins. But of course we were not. Irish twins, at best.
What my mother did get right was letting each one of us have our own cake. This was a good thing since my sister always chose angel food which to this day I have no desire to eat. It tastes bitter to me and no amount of whipped cream is going to change that. I would always choose devil's food, ironically, and could not understand why this would not win over my sister. Who does not adore chocolate?! I even proposed a compromise in which we could have white or yellow cake with chocolate frosting, but that was never acceptable. So we would pose for pictures with our two cakes and my parents would sing the birthday song completely out of tune as they continue to do over the phone to this day.
Back to the mystery at hand. At some point I wondered what the earrings were like that my sister told me she had made. Not wanting to belabor the point of the empty box, the amount of time and money with no gift attached, I did not continue my line of questioning. My imagination was left to wander to the exact moment that the package contents would have dropped out--maybe because she did not tape the box? She wondered if the glue was loosened because of the heat since we are both Southerners these days but upon further inspection I noticed it was not the side of the box that was sealed with the self-sealing strip that was opened but the ends that could easily be opened by someone wishing to investigate the contents of the box. Maybe that was it! Maybe my birthday earrings were stolen! And if so, by whom?!
Where do missing contents from small flat rate boxes shipped through the postal service end up? Is there a large lost and found in the corner of some nondescript room in the back of a post office? Do the postal workers go through the items and claim whatever looks good to them when there is no possibility of ever matching the items with the recipient? Are these renegade items, God forbid, thrown away?
Another birthday has come and gone. Remembered by some and forgotten by others, it is always a surprise as to who will end up in each category. It is a day filled with unexpected happenings that bring a measure of joy, undeniable disappointment and the ever present challenge it takes to truly celebrate the life of another. Like a box, emptied of its contents, my birthday wish is to go into this next year open to experiencing life with a joyful heart, an expectant spirit and enough love to cover over a multitude of disappointments.
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