Grocery Store Nirvana

I am not sure I have mentioned this before, but I hate grocery shopping.  (I probably have since it is such a pervasive and all encompassing hatred, truly only surpassed by my hatred for another of my necessary evils: the local crafts store where I must frequently buy physical supplies for my cake business.  *shudder*)  One would think that, based on the amount of time I spend thinking about (that makes me sound like I have a problem), planning, writing about and actually cooking food, I would also enjoy buying it.  I don't.  I think I would rather do most other things than shop for our meals. 

So, today started off a little earlier than I would have liked thanks to my toddler sweetly crooning, "Moooommmmyyyy!" from his crib and I knew that I had my weekly grocery shopping chore ahead of me this morning.  I planned to hit the gym for a yoga class, with the primary goal of getting a good, restorative workout in before I tackled the supermarket on a busy Saturday.  My excellent yoga instructor started the class off by encouraging us to leave the stress of our outside lives, quieting the chatter inside our heads.  (I love that about yoga - that whole "silencing the mind" part is so appealing to me, even if I only do it for an hour a week.)  She went on to instruct us not to worry about our grocery list or what we thought we should be doing with our time...aaaannnnddd I remembered that I still DID have to worry about my grocery list.  Blerg!  I finished the class, enjoying the little bit of me-time that I still had left and, with a much more relaxed mind and body, headed off to the grocery store to do battle with my list and my fellow Saturday shopping warriors.

Rather than sighing heavily upon entering the store, I found myself looking forward to my shopping...just a little bit.  (If you watch "How I Met Your Mother", at one point there was a character that said that sentence repeatedly in some kind of Eastern European accent - "jist a leetle beet".  That's how I just heard that sentence in my head.  I digress.)  As I got my list out and realized that I was shopping by myself, rather than rushing through my list while tussling with an unruly toddler, I kind of slowed down and thought, with a tiny smile, "well, at least there's that."  I found lots of organic produce on sale - always a great thing - and found organic meats were suddenly, magically, available at my store when they had not been previously.  Yes!  I went down the "Healthy Living" aisle and was grabbing some snacks for my older kids when the staff member stocking the section asked me, "have you tried this other product?  I think I have some free samples in the back if you would like to."  Free food that my kids will like?  Uh, yes please!  She came back with four samples, plus some coupons for the other stuff I was buying.  Wow - seriously, I was starting to feel pretty good about this shopping trip.  I continued to make my way through the store (oddly stopping to answer a question from someone in the baking aisle who said I looked like I did a lot of baking...which I do, but still...odd) and continued to find deals and steals (in the case of a new, talking - for real! - epi-pen for my son.  A lovely little coupon allowed me to pay a pittance for the new device.  Yes!) the whole way.  Add to that the fact that the store seemed somehow quieter than usual (probably because I wasn't struggling with my son the whole time and listening to his repeated whines to get out of the cart) and I left that store feeling almost as light as I had when I left yoga.

I don't know what it was that caused everything to fall into place for my shopping trip today.  Maybe it was a brighter attitude for having practiced yoga first thing this morning.  Maybe it was the positive intentions I set for myself at the end of the yoga class.  Maybe it was just a lightening of my spirit after chatting with friends at the gym.  Whatever it was, the universe paid out for me this morning by making one of my most detested chores seem pleasant and I humbly appreciate it.  I am sure my family does as well - they do like to eat.