It’s probably good and bad that I have so many things that are routine in my life. Sometimes that means I’m on auto-pilot and that can lead to repeating a mistake or not being aware when I should. But it also helps to be efficient when you know the routine and what to do in what order. I’m in a routine with grocery shopping which is something I’m trying to stop. This isn’t necessarily referring to foods I eat when I have binges, but my day to day normal food. I know which aisles in which grocery stores the things I want are.
Breaking this routine is a hard thing to do because I’m not super inspired by food or cooking right now. So it’s easy to get the few things I know that will work for my meals and just get out. When I have the time to be a bit more methodical in the grocery store, I take advantage of that and try to break out of my rut and find new things. And that’s something I was able to do earlier this week.
I was at the store looking for a few things that I normally don’t get. It wasn’t anything fancy or weird, just some condiments that I wanted to add to some of my regular food to give me some variety. I had no clue where to find those things in the store so I was wandering up and down every aisle. And while I was lost and looking for the last few things on my list, I heard a familiar voice saying my name.
It was one of the women in my mentoring group! We’ve actually run into each other at the grocery store before. Our group has been lucky and most of us live very close to each other. But there’s only been one member of the group that I seem to run into at the store. I think we live closest to each other so that does explain it. But it’s always still a surprise and so fun when we run into each other like that. We usually get to do some catching up and it always makes my day better.
This time, I was even happier to see her randomly because her husband recently went through a major health incident. He needed surgery and was in the hosptial for a while. I knew about this because she emailed our group, but I had been hesitating to email her back because I didn’t know if her husband was still improving or if things had taken a turn. I was hopeful he was continuing to heal, but I was scared to email something if it was going to upset her. And then I felt guilty for not emailing. It was an unnecessary thought cycle and I didn’t know how to get out of it. But seeing her at the grocery store allowed me to apologize as well as know that she and her husband are ok.
And that’s exactly what happened. It obviously was a very stressful time for her, but she has been handling it so well. And her husband has been making strides in his recovery that even surprises his medical team. The situation was not something I would hope anyone would go through, but they are having the best case scenario of a bad situation.
I also got to hear some of the little updates about other things in her life. But I joked that she should wait to tell me some of those until we have our next brunch as a group. But the little things I did hear are all amazing things and I love that she is continuing to progress with her project and that things are working out so well for her. She has been working on this project for years and I love that it is all coming together. It gives me hope that all the hard work that I’m doing will pay off in a similar way.
I would have loved to spend all afternoon catching up, but I did have to finish my grocery shopping. I had frozen things in my basket and I was still on the hunt for the things I needed. Turned out those things were only 1 aisle away. But I’m so glad I didn’t find it sooner because I probably wouldn’t have run into my friend and had that awesome and unexpected moment in my day.
Sometimes, I think even if you don’t realize it at the moment, you end up going exactly where you are supposed to be. And this random grocery run-in was the perfect example of that.
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