A story about mugs and friendship

This isn’t just a story about mugs and friendship, it’s goes so much deeper than that.  It’s about how the two things are connected, how we are all connected really, and how the world isn’t quite as big as we think it is.

This is the story of two mugs that arrived in a recycled Sephora box this week all the way from the USA.  It’s about the kindness of strangers and how we should never forget that there is much kindness in the world.  And that what we put out there on social media does have an impact on people

It started, as so many things do, as a private message on Instagram.  A private message that said if I designed my perfect mug Laura in Seattle would make it for me.   Laura is a potter you see, she has her own ceramics business and having seen me talking about mugs alot she offered to help me design “the one”.

I was on the M6 at the time.  Heading home from a weekend in Cheshire and we were stuck in traffic so I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram when a DM popped up that actually made me say “oh my god” out loud.  Mr B, who was driving (as if I have to clarify), queried what had happened in a “what world catastrophe had befallen us this time” kind a way.

In a way this news was bigger than any current world event.  It was my chance to have my own mug, not just my favourite one in the cupboard, or the one with my name on, but one whose shape, design, handle size and colour I had designed.

They arrived this week and I promptly burst into tears.  Not just because of the mugs but because of the note that accompanied them.  Because here was a lady, whom I had never met, offering to spend money on materials, give up her time, and then spend actual $$ to send something half way across the world to a random woman.  Who had penned a note that absolutely nailed mugs, my personality and that sometimes we just need to hear it out loud.

The mug I designed has a white interior (I can’t drink out of coloured mugs, it’s just wrong. Sorry).  A handle I can slip my whole hand through and its soft because I hold mugs to my face when I am thinking.   As Laura said

Its a great vessel for tea every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.  It’s solid and won’t let you down.  It’s comforting and natural.

Bang on.

Alongside side it was another mug, one I had no idea was coming along for the ride

She’s multi coloured, sloppy, bold and a bit alarming.  Her gold handle is tarnished. The back has a gold bee with a crooked crown.  There are days we have to drink up fast, build ourselves up and go out into the world as the queens we are inside.  It’s for days when we need a bit of oomph.

I think we all know those kinds of days, don’t we? Those days we could do with a bit of a boost.  For somebody to come along and straighten our skew whiff crowns.

It’s been a timely reminder that friendships can form in the most unlikely of places, over the most of unlikely of topics, when you least expected.

Social media is often slammed for being superficial and all about the likes but at the heart of it are people.  People who care, and we should never lose sight of that.