The Whimsy of Ordinary Days

Such is what I’m going to call the day I had.

There are some days where running and completing errands is a must.  Specific retail goods must be purchased and certain solids or liquids must be experienced.  And then there are other days where even a concentrated desire to acquire a particular retail item can be post-poned or reconsidered due to situational awareness or sudden shifts in “feeling like it (or not)”.  Today fell into the latter category.

There was a book I wanted to procure and a trip to a grocery store in mind afterwards, but by the time the book was in my possession, I was unsure if I had to get those gluten-free waffles today or if it could wait until tomorrow.  I decided that if the parking lot wasn’t filled to the brim, then I’d make a quick stop.  The parking lot was filled to the brim, and so I kept on driving.  In lieu of breakfast items, I went to get a taro soy milk tea with grass jelly, honey aloe, and no sugar at the only boba place I’ve found in my fair city that makes taro fresh (so you can have milk options).

On the way back to my bachelor pad, I elected not to go to either of the other grocery stores en route because I just wanted to return to my dwelling, take a shower, finish that taro heavenliness, and read.  Rather than take the primary driving directions, I took the secondary option, which put me through the residential streets of ludicrously expensive homes in metro-Atlanta.  There was a dip in the road with a stop sign for cross-traffic and a crosswalk.  As I was approaching it, with maybe ten car-lengths of space away, I saw a family of three on the left side of the road waiting to cross.  I checked my rear-view mirror.  The car behind me was six car-lengths behind me, so I came to a stop 1.5 sedan-lengths in front of this crosswalk.  Donning sunglasses and chin-length hair, the mother waved at me and mouthed, “thank you” as she, her husband, and their son walked across the road.  I waved in response.  Her face was beaming; she was so happy that I stopped (safely).  Her smile made me smile.

A few minutes later, I had the pleasure of braking for a black cat.  There were no cars in the oncoming lane nor were there any coming up behind me, thus, I was able to soak up this slow-motion moment with this black feline that trotted from left to right in front of my car, and then looked as intently at me as I did it when I started inching past the driveway.  Its eyes were the color of neon honey.  I don’t recall seeing cats in residential areas before…not like this.  Dogs?   Of course.  Hawks?  Yep.  Deer?  A couple times.  But not cats…not unless I’m in the burbs in the northern sector of the city.

I’d like to think that the gods wanted me to stop for these sentient beings.  They didn’t want me buying waffles.  When I approach my intentions for the day, especially when I’m trying to accomplish tasks in public, the less determined I am to do something, the less I envision how I want things to be, the more likely I am to find unseen forces pleasantly surprising me.

Original pic cred: Andrei Caliman @, unsplash

Timing Counts

Being in the right place at the right time can lead to many positive and meaningful experiences:
~ An interception return for a touchdown that puts your team ahead with only one minute left in the fourth quarter.
~ An interaction with one of the many loves of your life.
~ An introduction to someone who will end up (in)directly ushering fortune your way.
~ A sense of acknowledgment by and connectedness with a wild animal.
~ Relief as you obtain a much-needed retail item.
~ Bikers being awesome.
~ And perhaps the most coveted, random acts of kindess that saved you time, effort, or money or any combination of the above, and that didn’t happen for likes and more subscribers.

I was in the right place at the right time twice today while I was on a grocery errand.  The first instance was in the parking garage as I was circling methodically a few aisles to find a desirable parking spot.  I had almost reached the end of one of them when I saw an SUV turn in and stop because a car had its reverse lights on.  I assumed the SUV would park where that car was about to vacate, but the woman driver motioned for me to take the spot.  The second instance happened as I paused to decide how best to get a six-pack of 1-liter water bottles from the top shelf and into the cart.  A woman and her possibly-fifth-grader son were looking at products near me and must have interpreted my pause as an indication that I may need some assistance.

Before I could even take a breath and re-orient both hands to shimmy the pack off the shelf, I hear, “Do you need some help?” I responded in the affirmative, to which the woman said, “I’m not much taller than you, but….”

I made a move to cradle the waters after she brought them down but she put them into the cart.  I thanked her and she assured me it wasn’t a problem.  She was indeed probably a couple inches taller than I and maybe a dress size smaller, and yet she got that six-pack down faster and with more grace than I would have.  She saved me time and energy just because she could.

In many situations, unsolicited assistance leads to double the work because you have to redo something, and other times, you accept because you don’t want to seem ungrateful when you really could do something by yourself.  So, when the goddesses grant you this kind of unsolicited assistance, the kind you really do need, it feels like you passed a test…like you’re worthy of it.  Like you did something right and are being rewarded…even when you were just at the right place at the right time.