I always see interesting things when I go on my morning walks. This time it was a vine growing through fence slats. The vine had produced this beautiful purple flower and the fence was a stark background for it. The scene offered brief enjoyment but I decided to stop and capture an image of it for both of our future enjoyment.
Not sure what this flower is. Whatever, it’s blue. At least I got that part right.
Today during lunch I went to the grocery store. I wanted a salad but needed to get a few things first including olive oil. A few days earlier I went to the same store and tried to buy olive oil on a buy-one-get-one sale but they were all out.
Thankfully, this time the shelves were stocked with oil. So I proceeded to unstock the shelves and loaded my cart with ten bottles of the good stuff.
I got to the checkout and handed the cashier a raincheck from the previous trip. Now, rather than BOGO, the oil was on sale for $2 off. The cashier rang all of the bottles up on the sale price and then gave me half off for the BOGO raincheck!
I was ecstatic about the great deal I was getting. I was also wishing I had grabbed the last two bottles of oil off the shelf and asked if they had another case in the back (I like olive oil).
But then my little shopping trip got even better. An older lady behind me in line walked up and handed me her coupon for $5 off my purchase. She said she wasn’t going to reach the $30 threshold for the deal so she wanted me to use it.
I wanted to thank her more than just saying thank you. The discount was great but it was the woman’s generosity and willingness to break the wall of separation and silence between strangers in public that impressed me.
The woman probably felt pretty good about the whole situation too. Giving has a way of lifting the spirit. Even though I was the one who received the savings, that woman who gave the coupon likely received much more.
Most mornings around 6:00am I go for a walk in my neighborhood. I always thought I was getting out fairly early and felt a little self-righteous that I was the only one out and about. I figured no one else was willing to get up and get out early like I was.
Then, this morning I woke up just a little earlier at 5:30 and decided to walk then. I was surprised to find, on every street I turned down, someone else out walking (and usually at a faster pace). Some were walking dogs and some were obviously just out for exercise.
It was a reminder that when you start to feel like you have a leg up on the competition, you need to take a hard look at yourself. You’re probably not as far ahead as you think. Someone always wakes up earlier and walks a little faster.
A few weeks ago I decided not to post to the blog on Sundays. Now I’ve decided to abstain on Saturdays too. I think I see a pattern here but it’s too early to tell for sure.
It’s not that I’m getting lazy or trying to do less. Quite the opposite. I want my Saturdays and sometimes Sundays to be times when I focus more on writing, photography and projects rather than posting something to a blog. Nobody reads blogs on the weekends anyway.
So this will be my last Saturday post. Not that anyone will care since they don’t read blogs on the weekend anyway.
“Failure is not an option but it’s often a write-in candidate”
Ryan Davison
Everything orderly
Neatly stacked and straight
Yet with the slightest breeze
Everything crashes down
I just started messing around with patterns after my son came home from the library with a book on zendoodles. I finally had to stop myself because I could have just kept going and going. Maybe I’ll continue with this drawing or maybe I’ll start something new and better. Either way it gave me a chance to experiment and figure out what kinds of designs I like better.
