Wait a minute,...

There are so many things you can say that sound like you are saying the exact same thing, yet they are completely different. For example, let's say you have dental insurance and they tell you your policy covers cleanings every 6 months. You get off the phone thinking, Ok, perfect I get 2 cleanings per year. You schedule your appointment, get your teeth cleaned and walk out feeling all Jim dandy because your insurance is going to "cover it". AND THEN you get a bill because your insurance DIDN'T cover it!!! You're thinking what the hell, I called and checked on this.

However, a cleaning every 6months is very different than 2 cleanings in a year. You see? It sounds the same, but it is not.

The same goes when you are having a conversation with someone that is experiencing a challenging situation in their life. You are listening, listening, listening and listening some more. You can tell they are all into this challenge because they are not able to emotionally detach. You try to interject some tips on letting go of what is creating the challenge in their life and they respond with, "I know", repeatedly. When really a more appropriate answer would be, "I hear what you're saying", because if they actually did "know" about letting go, they wouldn't be challenged by the situation in which they are so emphatically speaking.

This may seem like a harsh judgement on my part, but really what it is, is raised awareness. It is an attempt on my part to practice letting go. It definitely is a process and it always will be. As long as we are humans, we will have challenges and opportunities to practice letting go. Our human selves have this mind function called ego that is about controlling, getting approval and judgement.

Once we let go of trying to control and just allow people and situations to simply be, our stress level drops dramatically.

Once we let go of trying to get approval and just allow ourselves to be our authentic selves, our stress level drops dramatically.

Once we let go of judging others and allow them to be their authentic selves we can provide ourselves with on opportunity to be our authentic selves without fear of judgement.

Whew! I feel better already! That sounds like such a sense of relief. I vow to myself to live at a raised sense of awareness and because of that I allow you to be your authentic self, whatever that means to you is none of my business.

Knowing something and living something are very different things.

Grocery cart

I don't understand why some people don't return their grocery carts at the grocery store. I see these carts left all over the parking lot and sometimes they are rolling straight towards someone's car or blocking a parking spot. I really do try to give people the benefit of the doubt, such as maybe they are in pain and returning the cart is just too much for them, or maybe they are going through some difficult time and its all they can do to muster up the energy to take care of themselves, but sometimes it just seems like laziness and a lack of consideration. Don't you think if you can get the cart you could return the cart? Usually the grocery stores provide multiple cart returns right in the the parking lot.

I know this is pretty petty, but since I've brought it up I might as well get it all out. When a cart is returned, how hard would it be to push the cart into the cart that is already there? It's just a simple little consideration for the people that work at the grocery store and for other people that return their carts. More carts can be stored in the cart return if they are properly placed.

Another little grocery store annoyance of mine is when using the recycling machines, if you experience a malfunction, why can't you simply push the service button to request help before just moving over to the next machine? There are other people that use these recycling machines and in fact are waiting in line to use the next available machine and you just jammed one up and stepped over to the next machine without even pushing the damn service button. That is so inconsiderate and rude.

I have a pretty good idea that it is unreasonable for me to expect other people to have the same values as me, but this is so simple.

Ok, now, I realize I am judging others on their actions or lack of actions in these cases and if you knew me you'd know I am a pretty positive upbeat person, but the key word there is person. I am a flawed human being doing the best I can with my current level of awareness and damn it, I guess that is what all those other people are doing as well.

My choices are to let it go and happily continue my efforts in returning abandoned carts or move to Canada.

Seriously! In Canada they have all their grocery carts stored in a coin operated locking device. When you get a cart you pay a 25cent deposit and when you return the cart you get your quarter back.

I'm not moving to Canada for 25cents, but I wouldn't mind if people thought twice about leaving their carts in the parking lot,...