Finding Gratefulness in the Grocery Store

Teacher life gets rough. 

Life gets rough. 

This last week was rough. 

This past week I found myself feeling pretty low about the world around me. Nothing in my immediate life had necessarily gone terribly wrong but I seemed to be super focused on the pain the people around me were having to endure. This seems to be easy to do when you are a teacher and a person with a "talk about it and fix-it now" personality. You see students challenges, co-workers challenges, and random families challenges. You also see your own. The challenges faced by others and myself on top of my daily job had made me physically and emotionally exhausted and by Friday afternoon I am sure you could see that exhaustion all over my face.

Once I got some sleep and was once again able to function properly I ventured to the grocery store, a normal Saturday occurrence for myself and my husband. On the way there we discussed bills, student loans, grad school, jobs, and the future. We complained of our poor choices in college that racked up our student debt and rejoiced about being able to cancel our Direct TV subscription soon. All things that can cause some stress when considered. Then we arrived at the grocery store.

By the way - I love going to the Price Cutter on North Bypass. They have nice things; a nice health foods section, a nice produce section, a great meat counter, and they even carry some Baskin Robbins flavors. 

However, on this day it was almost too much to handle. Not because of the homeless man outside or a mom snapping at her kids, or people who kept blocking the isles. It was because of what I realized about myself and how ungrateful I had been for my own life this week. No, I hadn't been like "oh, my life is terrible" but I had been failing to see how great my life is. Maybe, that trip to the grocery store is exactly what I needed.

We did as we normally do when we have time to go the the grocery store. We filled our cart with produce. I grabbed some snack popcorn and Greek yogurt from the organics/health foods section, we gathered Salmon, Tiliapia, and steaks from the meat counter, and we filled our cart with foods we know we love and some things we just wanted to try. Then, that's when it happened. 

We were towards the end of our shopping and our cart was full. I turned around to see an older couples cart with just the basics some bread, eggs, milk, and they were discussing which Banquet dinners they should get for the week. They were at the end of their shopping too, but their shopping looked a lot less fun than ours. A lot less healthy too. Everything they were getting could fit in the top basket of their cart and most if not all of it required no stove top cooking.

Finally, we got in line only for me to realize that the lady in front of us only had enough items that she was literally carrying them and they were not likely last minute ingredients she had forgotten for a pie or something. They were things she needed. Then I turned around and saw that the man behind us had only milk and bread in his cart. If someone would have talked to me at this point I probably would have not heard them I was so in shock at my realization. All the people around us, while surviving, were struggling. They weren't buying the cigarettes, beer, or lotto tickets that are often looked down upon, they were just buying what they needed to make it through the weekend or the following week. We on the other hand had an abundance.

This was a level of gratefulness that I had not recently considered. While we have bills and our own struggles we have it so good. Our faith, families, and hard-work have blessed us and for that I should be more thankful.

This Fall Give Thanks.

Psalms 107:1