Leave it to me, after weeks and weeks of not blogging to post two times in one day. This thing happened to me and I almost  posted it to my FB page, as I usually do, when I remembered one of my non-resolution resolutions, which is, to post more to my blog and share the posts on the Finding My Muchness FB page... I just feel like so many nuggets and inspiration wind up there and then disappear into the oblivion that is facebook.

Anyway, I was walking through the grocery store this morning stressing out. It is a really scary feeling being at the grocery store and feeling fear around money. I don’t like it. I was all wrapped up in my own head, my own problems, when I went to get on line to pay. I switched lanes twice because I wanted to be on the shortest line. I flipped through my phone as the elderly couple in front of me went through checkout. As they came to the end of their paltry selections, the woman removed a few tomatoes and two cans of soup from the belt. Then, she went to pay and slid her card through a few times. The pin was incorrect, the credit wasn’t accepted. The next card didn’t have any money.

Did I mention this couple looked really down on their luck? Their faces showed battlewounds of  life spent battling addictions. I’m no expert, but that was my assessment. But there they stood, just wanting to buy 11 dollars and 37 cents worth of groceries.

I turned and asked them if I could pay for their groceries. I swiped my card and they said Thank You. The woman took a scrap of paper and half-heartedly asked if I have an address so she could pay me back. I said “No- Happy New Year.” and smiled.

They took their groceries and left.

It kinda made me feel good, but mostly, it made me realize to stop focussing on my own problems for just a minute.

But then, the cashier looked at me and said “That was the nicest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” and for some reason, that just made me choke up. I just didn’t think it was so unusual— we read or hear stories all the time about people helping others out at the checkout or whatever. I assumed she’d seen variations on that in the past… So somehow, my instinctive response was to minimize it. I blurted out “I may have no job but at least I have my teeth.” which sounded way more obnoxious coming out of my mouth than I’d meant it to sound.

What I meant was “Today I’m gonna make a point to count my blessings.”

A few minutes later I ran into an acquaintance in another food shop and told her the story. She asked if I wanted her to pay for my purchases to “pay it forward”… I told her no, but if she wanted to pay for someone else’s who needed it more than me, that would be cool. 🙂

If you wanna jump on the $11.37 bandwagon and pay it forward, that would be cool too.

Happy New Year Everyone.