No Play Makes Jill A Dull Girl
Seemingly random events appear within my line of vision that will always snap my perspective on this life right back to its purposeful place.
Deadlines are looming, time feels crunched, and too many people in my life are pulling my attention toward their discontent. I am sitting in my car while parked in the lot of the grocery store. It is nine-thousand degrees outside, there is ice cream in the freezer bag that cannot possibly survive another minute in the trunk, and I am recovering from an unexpected crying spell that struck me in the check-out line when I noticed all the Father’s Day merchandise everywhere and realized that my dad is not here any more.
I dismiss the temptation to gauge my current circumstances against a broader spectrum of possibilities. Comparison to the experience of others, or the popular tendency to invite scenarios that “could be worse” has only proved to lead me down a distracting path of judgment in the past. I cannot live in my moments, or take full responsibility for the directional flow of my own experiences, if I am too busy weighing an opinion of myself with others.
I lift my head from its resting place on top of my hands upon the steering wheel, put the car in reverse, and look out the back window to leave. While scanning the vehicle and pedestrian traffic in the parking lot, I see a man to my right as he is exiting the store. I estimate his age to be somewhere in the vicinity of “retired.”
Pushing his shopping cart full of loaded grocery bags, he looks both ways before crossing the main thruway that runs in front of the large shopping center. Grasping the shopping cart’s handle with both hands, he uses one swift and fluid motion to nudge the cart forward, take an elongated step as it begins to move, and lift one foot after the other to stand atop the cart’s back rail. He is smiling broadly at no one in particular as he rides his cart downhill toward the parking lot.
Because life should always be this damn good, I am now smiling with him:)
Maybe your dad nudged him a little????
nicely conveyed
but on another note – I was in a grocery store on Monday and what I thought was a strange occurance grabbed my attention. A fairly thin woman with long grey hair in a pony tail went coasting by me in the rear of the store while I was picking out just the right chicken breasts. I looked up and she was with one foot on the cart and one foot actively pushing off and swinging back to do it again! She went right down the entire rear isle of the store and I assume she continued when she turned the corner! Is there something in the kool aid? Coincidence?