Finding Freedom

It's that time again... In 45 days, I will reach another milestone in my life when I turn 45 years old. As a little girl my imagination never reached beyond life in my twenties. My dreams teemed with the blessings of family. I hoped that, like my mom, I would be married with children by the time I was 26 years old. Going to college, traveling, and having a career were never on my radar.

I soon discovered that my life would take a different path than I had dreamed. And the journey on which I embarked became a quest for freedom in many aspects of my life.

For the next 45 days, I will be posting on a new blog, aptly named FINDING FREEDOM.

Please join me there and follow me over the next month and more until I turn 45.

See you on the other side!

Michele

Nod, Smile, and Pass Along Your Cart

This is my Aldi quarter. I keep it in the console in my car and every Saturday, I grab it to use to rent a cart for my grocery shopping. Heading toward the cart corral, I usually run into someone who is returning a cart. Rather than taking a new one, I hand over my quarter to the friendly stranger in exchange for the cart he or she has been using.

That's how it works. Rarely does a shopper pick out a new cart. But rather, the exchange of grocery basket and quarter between two strangers occurs in the parking lot.

Here in south St. Louis, where I have lived all of my life, the diversity of our residents covers the four corners of the earth. A great deal of our city's growth has come thanks to minority populations. "My" Aldi is a gathering of nations. While, St. Louis is relatively segregated, Aldi is not. It is as culturally diverse as you might find, next to the farmer's market in Soulard. And, I love it.

My earliest memories include a desire to understand those who were different from me. Perhaps that desire grew from feeling very different myself. I was drawn to other children who looked different or sounded different or dressed differently that I did. The process of engaging others and learning about them at a very deep level seemed inherent and I enjoyed it beyond explanation. My pursuit to understand various cultures, religions, ways of thinking, and ways of life continues to this day. I pride myself on my ability to adapt and "do as the Romans do" when in new situations.

The slow Saturday walk through the narrow, product-filled aisles of Aldi, satisfies my need for that which is different. This past week, a Bosnian man with an adorable baby fidgeting in his arms gave me his grocery cart as I entered the store. I placed my quarter in his dry, work-worn palm, saying, "Thank you." He nodded and smiled. Later, an older, tiny Asian woman asked me to help her find a cut of meat. We did not speak the same language but she did know she wanted a filet. I reached to the top shelf and pulled some options from which she could choose. She selected a package and smiled and nodded her thanks to me. "You are welcome," I said returning the smile. Once I was in line to pay for my food, the lines stretched into the aisles. Children of many cultures begged their moms for snacks and toys in various languages and one little boy threw a temper tantrum. As we each left the store, we handed off our carts to the next round of shoppers who obliged us each with a new quarter to use next week.

Often I wonder how many hands my quarter has passed through en route to a trip through the grocery store. My Aldi quarter, quite possibly, has experienced more culture than most people. I also often think that if the world took a lesson from my south city Aldi, we would find more peace. Perhaps we spend too much time talking when words are not always necessary. We must return to the simplicity of the human experience. Nod. Smile. Pass along your cart to the next shopper.

Writers Write, Right?

My greatest ideas come
while driving in the car
or just before I climb out of bed
to start my day.

They hit be just before
the phone rings or
my dog decides she needs
a walk right now.

I work through them
in my head at first
ordering the words perfectly
before I sit to write.

But then distraction
wipes the ideas away
and my motivation wanes
until I give up.

Writers write right?
They do not merely
leave their thoughts to die.
They cultivate wonder.

Perhaps I am not
the writer I imagined
or the visionary creator
of genius on paper.

Maybe I am simply
the idea person
who kick starts clever notions
for others to see through.