The Tea Party
Once, there was a little girl who wanted to have tea with her mommy. But her mommy was very busy. “As soon as I’m done with my grown-up work, I would love to have tea with you!”
But it seemed her grown-up work was never done.
In time, the little girl came up with an idea: Maybe if I set up a tea party, my mom will think it’s so special, she will want to stop her work to have tea with me!
So the little girl began setting up the most beautiful tea party.
She could picture the whole thing in her mind: she and her mom would sit at the table she set, and she would pour the most delicious tea into lovely cups, and they would sip and talk, and it would be the most special time ever!
It took a very long time, but finally, her tea party was ready.
Her mommy was on the phone again when the little girl extended a hand-drawn invitation, and she covered up the talking end of her phone to whisper to her daughter, “How wonderful, darling! What a beautiful invitation! I am so proud of you! I have to finish this important call, but I’ll be there very soon!”
The little girl waited at the table. And waited. She dipped her finger into the tea. It was getting cold.
“Are you ready for the tea party now, Mommy?”
“Mommy has to finish up a few more grown-up things, but then I’ll be there. I promise!”
As far as the little girl could see, the grown-up things did not look nearly as fun as the tea party she’d set up. But eventually, she figured she was wrong. Maybe her tea party wasn’t special enough at all.
The little girl went back to the drawing board. Maybe there was something more she could do to make her tea party extra special.
So she decided to experiment making her own teas, which made her very proud, as they tasted wonderful.
She set up a tea party for her friends from school, and even wrote their names at their spots using calligraphy she learned how to do from a book.
But they didn’t seem impressed.
“We’re just going to sit here and… drink tea?”
Still not special enough, thought the little girl.
At the library, the little girl read everything she could about how to make the most special tea party the world had ever known. The librarian thought it was a wonderful idea.
“We have a special room in back that would be perfect for a tea party!” she told the girl.
The girl handed out beautiful invitations to all the kids in her grade, but nearly everyone was too busy.
“I have piano lessons.”
“I have basketball.”
“And I have lessons for something that day… I forget what!”
"I know you're frustrated," the librarian said. “But don’t give up. You will have your tea party. You'll see.”
“She’s right,” thought the girl. “I bet I'll open my own tea house one day, and serve the most special tea parties all day long, and everyone will want to be there!
The girl began raising money for her tea room. Instead of lemonade stands, she set up tea party stands, selling her own handcrafted teas and cakes.
She traveled far and wide to learn everything she could about her passion.
And finally, she opened her very own tea room: The Tea Party.
It was just as she’d always imagined—beautiful and special in every way. And slowly, people began to come!
They sat at her perfectly set tables and drank her perfectly brewed teas and savored her perfectly baked cakes. And though the girl didn’t have a seat at any of their tables, she was so very delighted to see them return again and again.
It’s hard to believe, but one day, this girl, who was now a grown woman, found the time to have a child of her own—a beautiful little girl who looked just like she had.
The little girl loved her mom more than anything in the world and wanted to be by her side at all times. She learned to help at The Tea Party and loved tea and cakes as much as her mom did.
One afternoon, she and her mommy were at home and her mommy was busy with her work. Even though she had made her dreams come true, she didn’t get to relax much, as she had to keep improving her teas and cakes so that all the people would continue coming back.
“Want to have tea with me, mommy?” the little girl asked.
“Oh, I would love to have tea with you, my darling, but I’m busy with grown-up things today.”
The little girl felt disappointed, but then she had an idea: Maybe I could set up my own tea party! A really special tea party! Special enough for my mommy to want to stop her work to have tea with me!
The little girl set out looking around the house for supplies and found an old basket filled with a little tea set. It was the cutest, most beautiful little tea set she’d ever seen.
“Mommy, can I play with this?”
Her mom was too busy on the phone to look.
“Sure, honey.” she said, in the midst of writing down an order.
The little girl went to work setting up the kind of tea party she hoped her mommy would want to attend. And when the last of the tea cups were set, she noticed something at the bottom of the basket: an invitation.
Please come to my tea party!
Perfect! she said to herself.
Excitedly, the little girl ran to the kitchen and handed her mommy the invitation. “Would you like to come to my tea party, Mommy?”
When her mother looked at the invitation, her face turned pale.
“What’s wrong, Mommy?”
“Where did you find this?”
“In the basket of tea party things you said I could play with!”
All of a sudden, the mommy realized what was happening:
She finally had someone who wanted to have tea with her.
And she hung up the phone and kneeled down so she was eye-to-eye with her daughter. “You want to have tea with me, little girl?”
The little girl nodded.
“Well, I would love to have tea with you!”
And the little girl was so happy, she had tears in her eyes. And so did her mommy.
And they drank tea together and talked for the rest of the afternoon. And it really was the best day either of them had ever had.
The End.
-JLK