Last week I was talking to a friend who happens to love to blog. She loves reading blogs, writing blogs, talking about blogs . . . I told her that I stuggle to find interesting things to say to fellow yogis and she suggested that I write about ME. I thought, "now who wants to hear about me?" . . . but today I realized that simple things happen in my every day life that do relate to yoga. I mean, I'm not going to share my yoga routine with you, but the aspects of yoga that happen off the mat are the ones I find interesting.
And that leads me to today's entry. I realized this evening that I need to practice meditation at the grocery store. I mean I need some DEEP breathing to keep me from choking some people. As if shopping for groceries isn't stressful enough for me, the checkout line usually puts me over the edge. Today I picked what I thought was the shortest line. After all, I have things to do and dogs waiting at home. So the person in front of me is writing out a check, slower than I thought possible. Who writes that slow? No, wait a minute . . . who doesn't have a bank debit card today? To all the people out there that still write checks in stores . . . . GET A DEBIT CARD for heaven's sake. So the cashier takes the check and looks at it very closely. Then she sighs and turns on her little blinky light. That's it, I'm gonna blow. I'm thinking that eating is over-rated and I should just walk away and fast for a few days.
So the manager comes over and explains some reason why they can't take the check. What happens next? The customer says, "oh, can I just use this?" and pulls out a debit card. HELLO!!!! If you had a debit card in the first place, WHY ARE YOU WRITING A CHECK? Am I the only one that feels this way? Can anyone tell me why people are still writing checks at stores? I just don't get it.
But the point of this whole story is to say that my reaction to this whole scene was just terrible. After all, it was only another 5 minutes of my life. Part of me thinks "Yes, 5 precious minutes wasted." But another part of me realizes that I could have used those 5 minutes to relax and meditate. I should have been breathing deeply and using the time to contemplate something larger than me. So I promise to have more patience in line at the store. I am going to take deep breathes and imagine myself somewhere else - a mini vacation of sorts. But if there's a price check, I just may have to break out into a down dog!
2 comments:
Yes, you need to breate and practice the selfles art of meditation. Ohhmmmm...
Some peopple (me) have two checking accounts and only have one debit card to keep things simple. I write a check at the grocery store every week becasue my bills/grocery account is not the one with the debit card attached to it. And if you scowl at me in the checkout line, I slap you, lady (just kidding).
I always try to see things from other people's points of view. This usually helps me to stay calm and not commit murder in the produce aisle.
The slow check writer probably had no money in her checking account and wasn't getting paid until Friday. If she writes a check, she knows she has a few days before it clears, and she might get her direct deposit by then. If she uses her debit card, the money comes out of her account almost immediately. If she donsen't have any money because she's not getting paid for another two days, that's not a good thing.
Wait, were you in line behind me, because this is a familiar situation.
But seriously. It's a good thing that you're mindful of your impatience and you're thinking of doing somethiing about it. Baby steps...
Ok, I'm sorry. I had no idea that there was a logical reason. Now I get it. And I promise I won't fume any more when I see a real paper check being written!
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