Into Everyone's Life, A Little Cupcake Must Fall

I was just sitting around today and I was hit with the strangest feeling and found myself asking the strangest question: Could a cupcake be the answer to all of my life’s questions? It’s a peculiar thing to consider, right? But first, the back-story:

I work on Wall Street here in New York City. Known as the corporate and financial hub of this great city, where suits are the norm and repressed attitudes are necessary! I work as a paralegal, which for me is the legal equivalent of a marionette/minion/Girl Friday. Theoretically, I am here to do the attorneys’ bidding. When they say, “Jump!” it is my job (in theory) to politely ask “How high?” NOT that I ever do. Although I get a paycheck for providing a service, I am my own woman dammit!! I’ve worked in various law firms and corporations for years and in that time I’ve learned to appreciate the work that attorneys do. Enjoying the challenge of my job was never a problem…until now. I’ve worked here at the law firm of Dewey, Cheetum & Howe for a little over a year and a half and in working here; I’d have to say that I feel a particular sense of sadness. It’s a sadness that says that although I’ve been in the legal wrangling business for almost a decade, I’m being pulled further and further away from any sort of pure joy. It's a feeling that permeates. There’s tightness in the chest and dread at the mere thought of getting up every morning and going to work. I sit at my desk and attempt to command my own attention, but I sometimes fall short. How bad is that y’all?! Sitting at my desk in a stupor! It’s nothing like that commercial for LITE-FM -- where the cartoon characters seem to come to life, becoming illuminated and going on to have a brighter work day by merely hearing a song. I could understand the momentary condition if there was alcohol involved. I'm sure there would be a cool story associated with it. But this is just feels like a life rut. Now y'all know that’s a problem!! And it was during one of these fogs that one of my co-workers placed a little plastic container on my desk. And in the clear plastic there was a cupcake.

The owners of the building where I work are often charitable to the people who work in the building: there have been ice-cream giveaways during the summer and Christmas parties for all during the holidays, but my curiosity was still peaked when I saw tables being set up in the lobby. I asked Augusto, one of the security guards, what they were setting up for “A cupcake drive for a cancer charity.” he said. It was at that point that I took a pamphlet that lay on the table and I read about CancerCares. After reading the pamphlet I thought it would be a great cause to champion but moreover, the cupcakes looked delicious!

I had the choice of yellow, chocolate and pumpkin spice cupcakes to choose from. I was a bit tentative to put down a whole dollar for a cupcake –- I mean, what if the cake was dry or the icing tasted like kindergarten paste? To spare myself from all of that, I bought one…a starter cupcake. It was a curious thing, this cupcake. The hard candy happy face on top seemed to be luring me. With that, I took a bite. It was after the first bite of that one cupcake that something changed for me. My smile became wider and my day became more cheerful. I was turning into a LITE-FM commercial!!

Four Cups of Heaven!

Over the next three days, I found myself going down to the lobby at every opportunity. I bought six cupcakes on the first day to take home, in addition to the cupcake gift from my co-worker. I had two cupcakes with lunch the second day and finally bought four more before the charity drive was over. I wanted more of what these little pastries allowed me. I discovered that with every bite of the CancerCares cupcake, I found more of a complete sense of who I wanted to be. Joyful, generous and happy.

Here in my hand were all the things that life called for:
Joy to be found in the light and buttery pound cake, generosity to be found in the thick and decadent icing which was topped with the ultimate and most obvious light that this life offers us: a smile. All of that from a cupcake. It's like Betty Crocker had become some sort of guru for me...it was a "Cupiphany." Or in layman's terms: a cupcake epiphany.

I find that if I’m forced to work for a living, I should be doing something that brings me joy. That doesn’t mean that I plan on becoming the next Martha Stewart…I want to be the best me that I can be. A friend of mine even suggested becoming an editor as I find myself enraptured in my blog. Me, an editor? Those are huge grammatical shoes to fill. I'm not sure where commas and periods go as a novice. Can you imagine me as some sort of noted "expert"? But it's a possibility I honestly had never thought of before the suggestion.

It's a wonderous thing, these sugary little darlings. The smiles that they bring to people's faces are wide and the happiness it brought to me is priceless. I am now a champion of the cupcake. But if you think that I'm a fan, you can read about All Cupcakes, All The Time here.



Me and The Prophetic Cupcake!

*The post script to this story is that I subsequently traced the source of my happiness to The Buttercup Bake Shop with locations on both the East and the West Side, they're famous for their “Buttercup Golden” yellow cupcakes and their Hummingbird Cake. I guess it's true that good things come in tiny packages. My immediate joy was found in a little plastic container and topped with yellow (and green and pink) icing and a happy face!*