What's In Your Shopping Cart?

Most recent garden lesson---as I was pinching off dead blooms from my flowering basket I was thinking that since the reason for doing that is to basically redirect the strength of the plant to producing new blooms then it would be good if we could do that with our thoughts---then I thought--we can , we do, we should! I too often will put my energy into negative thoughts that bear no good fruit and bring my life no beauty. I need to quickly pinch off those dead (end) thoughts and redirect my energy into good thoughts that will grow into good actions..then I will have more blossoming going on and more beauty in my life.

Yesterday I finally went 'big' grocery shopping which means that I make a list, gather coupons, replace storage items, and stock up on a few things. This means that it takes a lot of time and a chunk of cash. This is why I tend to put it off. Anyway, shopping went pretty well but I seemed to frequently run into (not literally thank heavens) the same woman while I was shopping and she ended up being in line just ahead of me. I like to make eye contact with people while I am shopping and see if I can get people to return my smile. I frequently do and that is very pleasant but this particular woman didn't seem to want to make eye contact--at least not long enough to see me smile at her. She did however look at the contents of my shopping cart a couple of times and for some reason that bothered me. Who knows, perhaps that woman is right at this very moment writing her blog about an annoying woman who kept looking at her in the grocery store and I probably should ponder what quirk it is in myself that causes me to be bugged when someone looks at what I have in my shopping cart but I think I would rather explore the possible reasons people have for looking in other people's shopping carts.

As I mentioned, when I go 'big' grocery shopping I replace storage items and stock up and try to get enough basics to last a couple of weeks so my shopping cart gets pretty full. I also have a tendency to worry about not having enough so I do often buy more than what we need. There have been several occasions when people have stared at my packed grocery cart as I struggle to push it around a corner and I have felt a little gluttonous but how do they know I'm not buying for a care center or something---or maybe I have eight kids---Of course I shop at my neighborhood grocery store so I almost always run into friends and neighbors and they normally don't look at the items in my cart. (Although if it is a friend who knows I am trying to eat healthy I do feel a bit guilty if I have more cookies and candy than I do carrots and yogurt in my cart) So why would we check out what other people are buying?

Maybe someone has an item in their cart that we were looking for but couldn't find. Maybe they have something in their cart that looks good---like something we would like to have for dinner or dessert or a snack. Maybe they have a lot of something in their cart that would indicate a sale that we would like to take advantage of---Perhaps it would lead to more efficient shopping if we occasionally looked at the items in other people's shopping carts. For instance, if someone has really white teeth maybe we should look to see what kind of toothpaste is in their cart. If we know someone as being a person who demands good quality maybe we should see what kind of toilet paper they're buying. If we see someone with lustrous hair then we should see what shampoo they're buying or if someone we know is well off financially maybe we could take a peek and see if they buy name brand or store brand.

I shouldn't be bugged by the woman looking in my cart. Maybe seeing what people buy could become an interesting and even productive habit. They say you can tell a lot about someone by what is in their trash--so I'm sure you can tell a lot about someone by what is in their shopping cart. Maybe the lady was just looking to see if she could see what could contribute to or explain my habit of smiling so much at strangers...