Lenox Beckoned Me to Notice Her

 My daughters loves to go thrifting.

I think I may have put that initial bug in her back when she was a little girl and I was a work-at-home-mom.

It is funny, because in my former corporate power suit life, I had never been in a thrift store or even a garage sale.

Just under twenty-years ago, my life was very very different than it is today.

I was no longer managing a multi-million dollar product line ($17MM, to be exact). I was no longer shopping at Hall's for my Franco Sarto slides or power suit. I still only used one Coach purse that I had purchased back in Chicago a decade prior, it served me well and I had a simple uniform of a black suit, changed out blouses or shells, and silk scarves. I was never a corporate dress-down woman. Being black and after cutting off my bra-length straightened hair to embrace my natural self, I had to be sure I was up-to-par. So my simple uniform was expertly curated. I had my own stylist at Casual Corner, my go-to for high quality travel attire. So, since I was no longer in that corporate life, I was no longer purchasing $250 suits (a lot back in 2000).

The first time I went thrifting, I went only to find antique cups-and-saucers. 

My wardrobe, by the time my last child and second daughter was born, consisted of jeans, loafers, one of those former corporate shells, a silk scarf and a blazer. I hadn't embraced the mommy-look. It was the first time in my adult life when I didn't have that identity of working mom, so I was trying out who I wanted other than be. Anyway, my closet-full-of-suits and a curated look meant that I was not in the market for second-hand clothes. I also didn't shop at Target except for the girls or at Old Navy except for the boys. It was just my transition.

So, I went out of curiosity and finding something to do after we had been on a morning walk and stumbled upon a garage sale with an eclectic collection of curios. 

I saw rows and rows of formerly-loved-items.

I looked at them, wondered about the story of them.

My daughters was just delighted to hang out. They weren't interested in clothes -yet. They hadn't started school yet and in our little neighborhood of Hawks Ridge in Lee's Summit, they had everything they needed.

After walking up and down the eyes in the brightly lit Salvation Army Store in Lee's Summit, I thought I would just take them to the park. It wasn't a Mocha Mom playday and it was a pretty clear day, so just as I was preparing to usher them out-of-the-store - there she was.

She was sitting with a mate on the shelf in the glasses and mugs section.

Just delicately waiting to be found.

And I gently picked her up and turned it over.

It was a Lenox bone china tea cup and saucer set.

Immediately I smiled and understood why I was there.

For me, by that time, morning coffee was becoming my love language and ritual. I didn't go to the coffee shops every day, but I enjoyed the quiet sip of bliss, especially with a couple toddler daughters, an elementary aged son, and two teenage sons who were slowly turning our hair gray. My morning quiet was meditation, it was worship, it was serenity.

And Lenox beckoned me to take her home.

This morning, same ritual, many lives later, I was grinding the Rwandan beans my older daughter gave me for Christmas. She picked them up in Canada and they were so gentle. 

My tea up and mug collection is vast now. I get them whenever I travel. And then they each have a story.

So, I opened up my cabinet to decide who would accompany my rosemary and brown sugar syrup to meet these gently ground beans.

And Lenox beckoned me to reach for her.

Recent thrifting discovery,
1970s Japanese hand made coffee set
ReCollective, Bridgeport, Connecticut

She was resting on the highest shelf, along with other found tea cups. She now has a slight chip, having survived six moves from when she was first acquired, but is still just as refined, just as resolute, just as regal.

Sipping my latte this morning, preparing for the final days of 2025, I thought about the journey.

We all have one.

It takes us many places and for 2025, it has been a non-stop-assault on humanity and the senses.

But, what I remembered this morning in my engagement with Lenox, is that if we simply stop and see the beautiful that is already there, we will be delighted with possibility.

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In the misty morning of a last Monday of the year somewhere in Connecticut dreaming of tomorrow