Saturday Morning Adventures

Happy Saturday afternoon.  One minute the sun is shining, the next the rain pouring down.  Weird weather we are having.  I am so proud of myself.  I am actually beginning to get out.  I'd become such a hermit on weekends, it was beyond normal.  The only time I would leave my house was on my cooking weekends when I did my food shopping, but on the other weeks, I'd stay in from Friday night to Monday morning.  Why, the thought even went through my head that if I didn't have to work, I would never have to leave my house. Everything could be done online.  But, I made a decision that I'm going to start doing things, slowly at first, but getting out and enjoying myself.

Today I went to Barnes and Noble, something I haven't done in about a year.  I always order online.  I wouldn't let anything stand in my way...not the rain...or the transit issues.  I had to take the subway, get off and take a shuttle bus the rest of the way.  Usually, that hassle would be enough to keep me home, but today I dealt with it...and I had a great time.  Bought tons of books with some of the money I saved from stopping smoking.  Only one little incident almost set me on the wrong track.  I was looking for the books on mythology and basically, I knew about where they were the last time I was there, so I was looking for them when I saw that a man was coming in my direction.  I stepped aside to let him pass, he stepped in the same direction as me.  Then, we both stepped in the opposite direction. 

"All that we are is the result of what we have thought.  The mind is everything.  What we think.  We become."--Buddha

The man, instead of his getting a little laugh out of it as I was, got pretty huffy and said, "Come on, come on." then brushed past me to grab a book off the counter and go sit in a chair to read.  My immediate reaction was "That son of a b...."  Here I am with an armful of books that I will be purchasing, and he obviously comes in to sit and read for free." and he's going to be nasty to me?  A paying customer?  And then I realized, I was beginning to let him rent space in my head...and no, that wasn't going to happen today...There are going to be ornery people wherever you go...and letting them dictate our emotions is to invite a life of unnecessary unhappiness and pain.  We can spend hours and hours dwelling and ruminating on the negative and fearful things in our lives if we ALLOW it.  Instead, our focus and attention needs to be on the positive, the good, and on thoughts that will move us in the right direction. 


So, sorry fella, you can sit there all day in B & N with your puss on, but it had no effect on me.  This is MY life, and your unhappiness is not a part of it.