Feeling Grateful? Try It Now!

Feeling Gratitude For Another Day Done.

If you are able to read this, you are more fortunate than 3 billion other people in the world today.

Are you grateful for something today? Think of some things that you feel good about in your life. Then write them down.

It’s not a new concept, of course. Call it a ‘gratitude journal’, ‘abundance diary’, whatever. But writing down the things that make you happy or that you feel grateful for in your life helps to remind you to be thankful to be living in your situation right now.

It seems odd that we need to be reminded if this, doesn’t it? I mean, we don’t have to look very far to find those that are less fortunate. Where I live, I see people every day who live outdoors. The people here are very good at recycling, but we all know that if we are walking and we finish off a can or bottle of drink, we can just leave the empty container on top of the next municipal garbage can, and five minutes later it will be picked up by someone who will collect the deposit.

You don’t necessarily need to write down ten things, as a lot of so-called ‘gurus’ would have you do. You don’t even have to write them if you don’t want to. I write mine down, just because it helps me to solidify the things in my mind. However, I write them on sticky notes and post them to the bathroom mirror. Every now and then I toss the notes out and start over. That way, it doesn’t feel like a chore, like I have to come up with new things every day. It’s not a school assignment or a writing challenge. Most days, the thing that tops my list is a sunset. I go sit under them as much as possible and watch as the earth turns away from daylight one more time, feeling grateful that I got to go for another spin.

Think about the little things that make you feel good. Don’t feel silly for putting something on your list; it’s all yours and no one else needs to see it. Like most things, writing a gratitude list becomes easier the more you do it. Start on day 1 with one thing. Think about it now – what one thing are you grateful for today? A cup of coffee? Shoes that fit well? How about the fact that you have access to coffee, or that you have shoes? How about the fact that you can see, or hear, or walk, or talk? See how easy it is to be grateful?

You are a very fortunate person. You have a great life. You have a home with food in the cupboards. You have money in your wallet. People love you and you love them. As you fall asleep tonight in your soft, warm bed, think about the things that you love and feel grateful. I know I will.

Time Spent With Tessie

I had heard about Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford in 2005, but had never watched it until today. In it, he speaks of his near brush with death due to pancreatic cancer and that he hoped to live for several more decades. He gives advice to the students on finding your bliss and living every day as if it were your last. Poignant words.

I have always tried to live my life as a good person and citizen. If I was a millionaire, I would spend my time and money paying it forward, trying to make the world, or at least, as much of the world as I can, a better and happier place to live.  I am certainly nowhere near being wealthy, so I try to help by other means. At the end of my life, I want to be able to say that I made some sort of difference in people’s lives in some way.

For example, today I was inside a store when I heard a woman asking if she could bring her pet dog inside. The store clerk said that, unless it was a service dog, it couldn’t come in. I made a decision on the spot and walked towards the sound of the voices. I saw the woman standing on the sidewalk looking troubled. She was trying to decide whether to walk on or tie her dog outside and go in. I offered to stay with her dog while she shopped. She hesitated but, after I reassured her I wouldn’t steal her dog, she gave me the leash and told me the dog’s name was Tessie. She went inside and Tessie and I waited out on the sidewalk. Tessie was a wonderful dog, very sweet and friendly. After a few minutes the woman emerged with her bags. She thanked me for watching her dog and I thanked her for letting me spend some time with her dog. We wished each other a good day and went on our way. My day was brighter and I hope hers was too.

You have the capacity to love the whole world. Don’t save it for only those people you already know. Put some kindness out there into the world and see it multiply. This life is beautiful and can be made more so by small acts of kindness and generosity of spirit.

Money Is Funny

Why do we obsess so much about money? Particularly, not having enough money.

We all have different amounts of income coming into our household each month, and we all have different expenses. No matter how much money we make, we always live at that level (or above).

Isn’t it funny how, no matter how much money someone has, they always wish they had more? We always dream of what we could do if we only had a little more cash each month. Dreams are the whole reason why the lottery sells so many tickets. How many of us have walked by a nice house or car and thought “Boy, if only I had the money!”

We place so much importance on money. Relationships break up over it all the time. We choose our mates based on income. You know you do! I know I do. If I meet someone who tells me he is unemployed, I instantly get my guard up. In my case, it comes from the experience of having dated a guy who had declared bankruptcy. He told me that he and his wife were forced to do it during the divorce process, and I gave him the benefit of the doubt. But after 6 months of dating and lending him over $500 that I never saw again, we broke up. So now I’m a little gun shy. My criteria for dating has now included “must not be bankrupt”. I don’t think I’m being too picky….

It has been said that money if the root of all evil. But it also helps us do certain things. You have a roof over your head and food in the cupboards. We certainly don’t want to be homeless, or have our loved ones go without the basic needs and wants. But beyond that, once the needs and wants are all taken care of, when is enough, enough? The answer is, never. Because the ‘wants’ never stop. That’s where we get into trouble.

Most of us have debt. Whether it’s a mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit card, line of credit, buy now pay later, or payday loan, we owe someone something. Most of us also say that having debt is a part of life. I tend to disagree. Yes, I have debt too, but I think it is possible to live debt free. Our problem is that we don’t have the patience to save up for things. Yes, it would take forever to save up for a house. But it’s not impossible with proper planning. Think back to the seventies. A lot of people, my parents included, paid for their house as it was being built. They never had a mortgage. Don’t you wish that could happen for you!? I sure do!

I struggle with this issue every day. I want the nice things in life. I want the vacation, the clothes, the home. But I save and save. It takes a LOT of discipline, trust me! And I am certainly not perfect. I feel the pressure from friends as well. They wonder why I don’t drive to work every day. I also have an older style CRT television and most people ask why I don’t have one of those new flat, thin, LCD tvs. My answer – it works just fine. It’s all about priorities.

Quite often we judge people based on their material possessions or outward appearance. Whether someone has money or not is usually one of the first judgements we make. I recently saw a photo on a celebrity gossip website about Keanu Reeves. Someone took a photo of him riding the subway. He was reading the newspaper and looking like any other commuter. They were perplexed as to why he was taking the subway, since he is obviously very rich. They accused him of always looking like a bum as well; saying that he never shaves or dresses very well. I thought he looked just fine – nevermind the fact that I’ve had a crush on him for the last twenty years! I, for one, think he is actually being very smart. First of all, I commend him on not caring what others think and for being practical. He’s taking care of his finances and being responsible with his income. He’s securing his future because, even though he’s got a great career right now, Hollywood can be fickle. He just might never get another hit movie, or the studios may stop calling altogether.  We judge other celebrities just as harshly for buying a car for every day of the week and splashing out on a massive mansion in the hills. It seems that no matter what anyone does with the money we have, we judge them based on their choices.

Money. It takes up so much of our lives. We are always working for it, saving it, spending it, wanting more, being jealous of those who have it, and being resentful of those who beg for it. Some people in this world never see more than twenty dollars during the entire course of their lives – are they poor? Or do they live a full and rich life, free of material possessions and of wanting more? Is that possible for you and I as well? It’s something I strive for – to be happy with ‘enough’ and life a contented life.

People are Strange (When You’re a Stranger)

I moved away for a year and now am back. Living in a different town for a year was a change for me, but it’s good to be back in the old ‘hood. When I lived here last year, I took the bus to work. Now I’m back and once again taking the bus. My alarm goes off at 5am and I am on the bus by 6:40. In the early morning of this city, things are pretty quiet. The traffic is light – the only vehicles moving are delivery vans pulling up to coffee shops and buses rumbling through sleepy neighbourhoods.

The people are all the same too. Its interesting to see how they haven’t changed either. I wonder if they noticed that I was gone, and now am back? They are all still up to their old routines. There’s something comforting in the fact that things didn’t change all that much.

For example, there’s the guy who wears shorts and a hoodie no matter what the weather or the season. He gets on the bus three stops after I do, and we get off at the same one 30 minutes later. We work near each other, though I’m sure neither of us knows exactly where the other works. I see that he recognizes me, though we never fully acknowledge each other. We are fellow commuters, and in that, there is a silent understanding.

There’s the guy with the hair. I call him that because he’s got slicked back hair, like those guys on Mad Men. He’s also got a big round belly that keeps trying to burst out of his dress shirt every day. One day last week it succeeded, having popped a button low towards the belt line. The white undershirt underneath strained to contain it as the button literally hung by a thread, seemingly nodding apolegetically with each bump of the bus. You can tell by looking at this guy that in his job, he’s King of his own little empire. He looks supervisory and has an air of feeling slightly better than the rest of us. He sits and reads the entire time, his leather man-purse on his lap.

Then there’s the creepy guy. He doesn’t take the same bus as I do, but I see him in my neighbourhood as I walk to my bus stop. He gives me the heebie-jeebies. There’s something about him that’s more animal than human. He’s about 6 feet tall, probably late 20s or early 30s. His shaved head shines as he walks with large, determined strides. He’s pure muscle, slim but solid, like he’s obsessed with staying in fighting form. This morning I was sitting at my bus stop when I saw him. He was on the corner waiting for the walk light to change. The red hand light turned into the little human light as the signal chirped. I saw him put his hand up into a gun shape and make a shooting motion at the human symbol just before he crossed. It was sinister and made me look away with a shudder. I didn’t look up as he strode past me on his way to work. He just gives me a creepy feeling *shudder*.

Of course, there are girls on my route too. There’s the one who is so perfectly coiffed each day, yet she falls asleep almost immediately and gets totally messed up while she sleeps. She falls over, her hair falls down, her purse often slides to the floor with a thump and she wakes to pick it up. This might happen more than once in a trip. I wonder sometimes why she goes through all that trouble when she’s only gonna fall apart when the bus gets rolling.

There’s another girl who sits in her seat and puts her bag in the seat next to her. She obviously doesn’t want anyone sitting next to her, yet its the morning rush hour. The bus gets packed full, but she tries to hold off as long as possible with her bag on the seat. If at all possible, she doesn’t want anyone sitting next to her. Its a battle she always ends up losing.

In the end, the bus reaches its destination. I don’t ever see where these people go because I have to catch my connecting bus. Sometimes shorts guy is on the connecting bus, sometimes he walks the 20 minutes to the area where we work. As for the other people, I am sure they go about their day and, just like me, make it back home somehow at the end of it. The next morning we all start over again. I have the day off tomorrow – I wonder if they’ll miss me?

(A Few More Than) Twenty Questions

Where are you from? Do you live in the same town or city that you were born in? Do you live close to, or far away from, your relatives? How well do you know your extended family? If you do live away from your hometown, how did you end up where you are now? What was the chain of live events that led you to this place, on this day?

Are you happy? Do you have a safe place to sleep and food in your belly? What do you do for fun? Do you get to have any fun? Do you make time for good times in your life? Do you feel stressed often? How do you cope, and what do you do to let loose and laugh?

Do you have a job? Do you like your job? Why do you do what you do? When you were five years old, what did you tell people what you wanted to be when you grew up? Are you doing that now, or are you doing something else? Why? What led you to your current job or career path? What’s your passion? Are you living it? If you could wake up tomorrow doing the one thing that would make your life truly fulfilling, what would that be?

Have you inspired anyone lately? Have you offered encouragement? Do you try to lift someone’s spirits when you can? Do you give others hope? Have you told a child how beautiful they are and how much potential they have in their life? Do you reach out through volunteer work, or in some other way to your community? Do you try to do a good deed every day? When was the last time you gave up a seat to someone else? Have you helped someone take groceries to their car? Did you find a lost pet? Did you return a lost item to a place where the owner might find it?

Have you loved? Did you tell someone that you loved them today? Did you tell yourself that you love YOU today? Do you have a close friend who is always there for you, and you are there for them in the same way? Have you told them how much you appreciate them lately? Do you have children in your life? Have you hugged them and told them how much they mean to you?

Do you smile? Do you smile and say hello to strangers that you pass on the street? Do you smile and thank the bus driver, the cashier, the crossing guard, the taxi driver, the waiter, the valet, the bank teller? Do you thank your loved ones for the little things they do each day? Do you take time at the end of the day to give thanks for all you experienced? Do you keep a gratitude journal? Do you wake up each morning, thankful for being given another chance to make a fresh start?

What will you do differently next time? What lessons have you learned? What lessons would you like to pass on to others? What’s the most valuable piece of advice anyone has ever given to you? Who has inspired you the most in your life? Do you have a mentor? Who do you look up to? Who do you aspire to be? What are you doing today to become that person?

How many questions will it take in order for you to truly know yourself?

Have You Enjoyed a Chick Flick Today?

My Chick Flick Adventure Took Me To Italy – Where Will Yours Take You?

Do you have a favourite movie? How many times have you watched it? You have one, you know you do. I have many, many favourites. I have to admit, my guilty pleasure is chick flicks. Some call them rom coms, or romantic comedies. I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for them. If you quote any line from any chick flick, I can tell you which one it was and can describe the entire scene with enthusiasm. Winters on the West Coast are rainy – it literally rains sideways – so there are plenty of opportunities to settle down for some movie time. There’s something satisfying about dedicating a Sunday afternoon to sitting in PJs on the couch enjoying a good love story. Note I said good, not great! Chick flicks certainly do not belong in the ‘great movies of our time’ category. But, they have a place in cinema like any other genre.

Your favourite movie may change over the years. I remember watching “Pretty Woman” on VHS back in the day. And “Dirty Dancing” got me through some weekends. And of course don’t forget about “Sleepless in Seattle” and “You’ve Got Mail”. Basically anything with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together. Even “Joe Vs The Volcano” is a good watch when you feel a bit more like laughing.

Current favourites include “PS I Love You” and “Love, Actually”. But there was one movie that inspired  a bucket list goal last year. “Eat, Pray, Love” moved me so much that I decided to take a trip to Italy for Christmas and New Years 2012. I explored the country and fell in love with it. I walked the streets of Rome, ate great food in Tuscany, took a gondola ride complete with serenade in Venice. I also made the trip to the town where another chick flick was filmed – “Under The Tuscan Sun” was filmed in San Gimignano. Who knew that a chick flick could actually move someone to do something daring like that? I certainly never expected it!

There is a line from Sleepless in Seattle where the character Becky says to Annie, “You don’t want to be in love, you want to be in love in a movie.” This line is meant to give the viewer some recognition of the reason why we watch movies just like this one. I, for one, agree. Isn’t it so romantic when, at the end of every chick flick, one of the main characters makes that Grand Gesture for love? They run to the airport and stop the person from getting on the plane. Sometimes they break through security and actually get ON the plane, which we all know would be impossible in reality. Or how about when the spurned lover has to leave after being rejected by the other – heartbroken, seemingly for good, and sometimes to another country, only to have the other character show up unexpectedly at their door?

Movies like this give us an escape from our everyday. They take us into a fantasy world if only for a short time and move us to another place where everything works out in the end. And isn’t that all we really want out of any situation in life? Maybe that’s the real reason Hollywood makes these movies. To remind us of how it can all turn out for the best.

Sit. Watch. Enjoy!

What’s your favourite movie? Do you watch it alone or with someone? What’s your most favourite time of day to watch movies at home? Why do you love it?

My Advice To Me – Follow This Advice!

You Only Get A Certain Number of Sunrises – Here is Today’s

We hear it all too often. But it bears repeating. Live your life to its fullest potential. Live each day as if it were your last – because one day you will be right. Most of us think about this and we all have the best intentions, but quite often we don’t fulfill it. We don’t truly live each day to its fullest. We slog through another day at work and head home to the usual routine. One day turns into the next and, before you know it, weeks have gone by.

It often takes a major life event for us to pop out of our haze and realize that time is running out with each passing moment. Each one is ever so precious. Time is so precious. The people we interact with are so precious. Every single thing we do and say takes time. Every thing we DON’T do or say takes up time as well. This can get so overwhelming if you sit and really think about it. This is where most people stop and decide to just keep living as they were.

When you are going about some mundane task in your day, stop for a moment. REALLY think about it. Is what you are currently involved in so astronomically important? Is whatever you are doing contributing to your full life, or is it just burning time? What could you be doing differently in order to make it a truly fulfilling moment? And why aren’t you doing something else right now instead of this?

Are you driving to work to earn money to pay off the car that you need so you can drive to work? Doesn’t that seem ridiculous? Wouldn’t life be more fulfilling if you didn’t need the car, and hence, didn’t need to put in the extra hours to earn the money to afford the car? Solution: Move closer to work, or find a job closer to home. A lot of people balk at the idea, but it actually makes the most logical sense, doesn’t it?

Which other areas of your life operate in cycles like this? Now, I don’t intend for you to stop washing clothes because they’ll only get dirty and need to be washed again! Don’t stop shaving just because the hair will only grow back tomorrow. I’m talking about changing or eliminating habits that are counterintuitive to having a fully enjoyable life. Do you live far away from relatives that you love dearly? Wouldn’t you like to be closer to them to be able to visit more often? Bridge the distance.

It’s so easy to think that we have all the time in the world to plan a future better life. We put money away for retirement because we think we will make it that far. No one likes to think in doomsday scenarios all the time. But sometimes you have to face the reality that at some point you will suffer a setback. You will get ill, someone you love dearly will pass away, you might become disabled.  What would you wish you could have done if you were suddenly blinded? What do you wish you could have told that person if you knew they would be gone tomorrow and this was the last time you would ever see them alive?

Life truly is short. It’s too bad most of us won’t realize it until the end. So get on it. Time’s a-wasting.

You Are a Nosey Person – Keep It Up!

That lady down in front is deciding who she thinks I am – I can feel it!

 

You are a curious person. We all are. We love to learn new things, make new discoveries. We never stop learning throughout our lives, and that’s always a good thing. There are so many areas of human behaviour that humor me, but none more than the curiosity that we have for other people. We are such nosey bodies when it comes to other people’s business, aren’t we?

We often look at total strangers that we pass in every day life and instantly wonder about them and pass judgements. For example, this morning I was waiting at my usual bus stop and there was a woman who had more than the usual commuter items with her. Of course, there was the requisite steel coffee cup complete with lid, but on the ground before her was a backpack with zippers straining to hold back the contents from bursting out all over the sidewalk. The side pouches were stuffed with plastic bags and rope. There was a medium sized ice chest sitting beside it. It was large enough to easily hold a twelve pack, my curious mind concluded. As I pondered this, the woman placed her coffee mug on top of it. Apparently it also made a good impromptu coffee table.

As I looked her over, I put it all together and tried to decide based on her clothing what her job might be. Researcher, perhaps? On her way to collect samples in the field and store them in the cooler for the trip back to the lab? Apparently satisfied with this conclusion, I moved on to observe the Jack Black doppelganger who was pacing back and forth, eating peanut butter cookies out of a disposable sandwich bag.

I also wonder what conclusions people draw about me as I sit there. I am sure they play the same little game as I do while waiting for the bus, or while passing the time riding to their stop. It’s tempting sometimes to play with their assumptions. Maybe I should’ve been an anthropologist instead of a chemist, but it’s always fun to people watch, and I think that makes us all keen observers of human behaviour.

Do you ever play this game with yourself? As you drive past neat rows of houses, do you wonder what the lives of the people who live inside are like? Do you wonder how they afforded that fancy house? Whenever I pass a huge mansion-type house, my first thought it always, “I bet there are only two people living in that huge waste of space” – sigh. If I see a middle aged man driving a snazzy convertible I think, “Midlife crisis”.  At the grocery store it’s easy to tell if someone is buying for a family or for one. I can’t remember the last time I used a cart with wheels – I’ve seen people watching what I put down on the counter and I’m sure they are deciding I’m a single girl. Hey, can I help it if I love Magnum Ice cream?!?

One of the most acceptable, though most often ridiculed forms of curiosity with other people comes from celebrity news. Fact is, no matter how much you say you hate celebrity gossip, I bet you know tons about celebrities. All I have to do is mention the name ‘Tom Cruise’ and I bet you can think of tons of things about his personal life. We love to taunt the people in or lives who pay attention to celebrity gossip, yet I bet at one time or another we are all mildly fascinated at some point. We can’t help it!

Thank goodness for our curiosity about others. Being curious keeps us close to one another, keeps us aware of our society and the personalities contained in it. As we study other humans, we learn which types of behaviour fall within the normal scale, which makes it easier for us to recognize those among us who appear abnormal – those that might intend to do us harm. Our curiosity serves to protect us while teaching us about each other at the same time. Enjoy your healthy curiosity – hey – did you hear the Spice Girls might be getting back together again?

When Life Turns On A Dime

What do you do when you get some really devastating news? I mean, life altering, earth shattering, soul crushing news?

If you’re like most people, at first you feel that crushing blow that can buckle your knees and your composure. You may at first be shocked and need to sit with that stunned and disbelieving look on your face as you feel yourself being shaken to the very core. You have to remind yourself to breathe. Hopefully the person delivering the news is in the same room as you – you need that outside voice to keep you from totally collapsing. If you happen to be reading a document containing the news, you may find yourself re-reading in disbelief as the tears well up in your eyes. It seems that at that moment, the only word inside your mind is ‘no’.

As the moment passes, as all moments inevitably do, reality starts to come back to you. Your tunnel vision begins to widen and you start to blink again. Eventually you have to start moving again, so you put your hands to your face in a washing motion and then rub them together in front of you. It’s as if you are subconsciously trying to wipe away the expression and the feeling of utter devastation.

Once you come to grips with the news, you have two choices. You can let it drown you, or you can start to swim. The choice you make at this moment is critical and completely depends on your outlook on life to this point. If you decide to let it drown you, you are basically done. Everything will seem dark. Your every motion will feel as if its done in slow motion. You will cease to care and will sink into the abyss of self-centered pessimism.

If, however, you have maintained a positive outlook in life, you will quickly realize that this life changing moment can become an opportunity. Choose to start moving through the devastation, fight the current and swim for shore. Your friends and family serve as your beacon in the storm. Sure, it’s a setback. Don’t deny reality. Just don’t forget that you are still here – life goes on. The sun WILL rise again. The question is, will you see it as a new day – another chance to love with every beat of your heart, breathe deeply, make every moment count? Rebuild shattered hopes, celebrate time spent, lives lived, moments shared. Never miss the opportunity to learn and grow from every experience.

We rarely ever talk about the worst moments of our lives, but sometimes those are the most important, life shaping ones. We tend to take photos of the great moments because we want to remember them. We reminisce and tell stories as we flip through them with others. We tend to gloss over or skip the worst moments, yet those are often the moments when we learn what we are truly made of, and what those around us truly mean in our lives. As your life meanders along like a slow river moving across the plains, take the time to notice how you swim, because you’ll need strength when you hit the rapids. And when that happens, you’ll be glad you didn’t just let yourself float on the way there. Because you might just need to help others to shore as well.

Just Go With It!

A lot of unexpected and good things can happen if you just follow the day.

I figured today would be like any other. Go to work, come home. But I ended up missing the carpool home to stay late at work. I’m on a deadline and ended up staying an extra 2 hours to get things done. With the carpool long gone, I was resigned to walking the 20 minutes in the sweltering heat to the bus stop. I was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt, since I wasn’t prepared to walk more than the twenty feet to the air-conditioned comfort of my co-worker’s car.

Just as I was saying good night to some co-workers, another one called out to me. She had heard that I was walking to the bus and asked if I wanted a ride into town instead. Of course I accepted. I started a new position at work on Monday so I am new to the building. I thought it quite nice that my new co-worker offered a ride to me. We drove and chatted for the 15 minute drive. She asked where she could drop me off and I told her that I’d be fine to go where she was going and I’d walk from there. I didn’t want to inconvenience her by making her go out of her way.

She said she was going to the mall and I got out at the parking lot with her. We parted ways and I decided to walk through the air-conditioned mall on the way to the bus stop on the other end. As I walked I decided to do a little shopping, since I don’t get to this mall very often and I needed a few things. As I wandered around and made my purchases I came across a sale – buy one get two free! Nice! So I made some great deals and headed off. As I kept walking I passed by a hair salon. I have REALLY needed a haircut and I’m not fussy at all about where I go, so I walked inside. They were one of those walk in places that don’t take appointments. Due to it being 6pm, they had no waits. Great! I got a fabulous cut since the stylist wasn’t rushed with other customers. We also had some very nice conversation.

It’s really nice when you make a short-term friend through the course of your day. You know them; they are the people you spend some time with during a given service. It might be the hairdresser. It could be movers that you hired, or repair people who work in your home. Maybe it’s a person who is waiting with you at the airport gate, or at the bus stop. You have more than just small exchanges of hellos. These are people that you actually strike up a conversation with, or that you find a common interest with. You know the friendship is only for the period of time of the activity, but nevertheless it’s a great exchange and brightens your day.

I walked out with six inches less of hair (and its still pretty long!) feeling good and re energized. I walked into a cosmetics store for one last item on my list. This is one of those stores where all the employees wear black and have headsets like they are all backup dancers for Lady GaGa or something. Nevertheless, I was helped by a very helpful lady and carried my purchase to the front counter. At the front I presented my membership card and was informed that I get a free gift because it’s my birthday! Now, my birthday isn’t for another two weeks, but hey, free gift! So I walked out with some cute lip balms as well as my purchase.

As I exited the mall I checked over my shoulder for the bus. There it was, stopped at the red light down the road. As soon as I got to the stop, the bus pulled up. Perfect timing! I rode the bus home while listening to some tunes on my Ipod. And here I am!

So you see, my after-work adventure wasn’t in my plan at all. Yet, when circumstances presented themselves, I followed them. I could have declined the ride offer and took the bus straight home. I could have gone around instead of through the mall and missed great deals and a birthday gift. I could have walked past the hair place and then would have had to use time on the weekend – who wants to do that!?

So go where the day takes you. You never know who you’ll meet or where it will take you.