If I Close My Eyes...

and breathe in the remnants of fragrance after I empty a box of Earl Grey tea....

...I am transported back to England to the coastline of Cornwall where I am sitting in the garden of the old Victorian hotel where we are staying, having a cup of tea with my sister and pretending to be old married women conversing about our grown children.  We are proper and polite and speak with "frightfully nice" accents.

...I am hugging the t-shirt my sister brought me from her trip to England with Teen Mission International. She has all kinds of goodies from her trip, including Earl Grey tea, and everything in her luggage smells of it. It is my first time smelling it, and I know immediately that I love it, even though I am 11 and don't really like tea yet. Five years later, I buy a box of it to put in my own luggage on my trip to England with Teen Missions International. I enjoy a few cups of it along the way, too.

...I am on my honeymoon in Windermere, England. I am sitting across from my new husband, enjoying a milder day on our honeymoon...and a pot of Earl Grey tea.  Stuart isn't a "tea drinker," per se. But he enjoys it for me. That's true love.

...I am holding a small gray baby bunny, from the second of Bonny Bunny's litters. He is small and gray...unlike his brother and older sisters at the same age. I wonder at his coloring given the fact that both of his parents are Himalayan Netherland Dwarfs. He is the one that Emily chooses for her 4-H project. He is the one with the most determined personality. He is the one that she names Earl Grey in honor of her favorite tea. He is the one who lives up to the nobility of his name. He sits proud and tall when she talks about him in the 4-H meetings. He loves his hut and sits on the roof like a bunny version of Snoopy. He uses his litterbox with pride and munches on hay whilst sitting in it.

...I am holding a long white bunny, no longer strong and proud. He is sick and dying. It is the middle of the night. I awaken his owner, his "mommy" and the one that he loves more than any other person. She holds him and pets him as he slips away to live with Jesus....

Earl Grey = a tea, a bunny, and so many memories.