# 225: G is for Gifts and Grace

Gifts, Going Slow, Being Gentle, Finding Grace

Apr 10, 2024

We've gotten so used to speedy lives, instant gratification, messaging and email that we forget there are gifts to receive when we get our heads out of our phones and into the eyes of the person standing next to us. For you today, a piece about taking the time to go slow and the gifts that can bring.

Going Slow

If you're in a hurry, you might want to pick the other checkout line as I seem to have a talent for picking the slowest line. I say this often at the store. It’s fair warning. Some move on to another line but others laugh and smile. It may even become the start of a cheery conversation while we wait.

I have a talent for picking the slowest line.

The Slow Lane — The slow lane can be gentle and gracious. (Photo by me)

Some years ago…

I am rushing to make a deadline, prepping for a class, a magazine article, or recipe development and need just one ingredient for whatever the heck the project I am working on. No surprise I can’t remember now but at the time it seems oh so important and I am hellbent on getting whatever it is ASAP. l remember rushing down the hill to the natural foods grocery right, finding what I need, and hoping to check out quickly but my talent for picking the slowest lane is in full force that day. The line is slow…very very slow…and now, when it is finally my turn, the darn register needs a new roll of receipt paper which adds more time and I, being in rush mode, make an uncalled for snarky remark about the delay. Although the checker says nothing, I can feel the shift in her energy.

What was I thinking? When I stumble like this I realize I’m not thinking with my brain. I’m thinking with my mouth. Queue up If I Only Had a Brain, right?

But some people without a brain do a lot of talking anyway, don’t they?

Finding Grace

Back home, I remember another gazillion-things-to-do day. Not surprising I’m at a grocery store with just one thing to buy. I find the shortest checkout line and stand right behind a mother and young daughter whose shopping cart is filled to the brim. Oh no I think. Then the mom gracefully turns towards me with her little girl and says,

"Please go ahead of us."
"Really? You have no idea how much that means to me today," I say.
"Yes, please do. I want to show my daughter that there still is grace in the world."

They smile and step aside to let me pass.

I remember how much that small act meant to me that day and, after my own rude behavior with the checker at the natural foods store, I go back to find her and apologize. This time there is no checkout line. She recognizes me but says nothing. I apologize and give her a card and small gift, too. She says that I did hurt her feelings but appreciates me coming back to apologize. It means a lot.

The Gift of Grace

Over the following weeks and months, I make it a point to head to her check-out line where we develop a friendly relationship and chat a bit about what I am baking or cooking and a bit of her life, too. One day she tells me she is moving from our town and I am sad. We reminisce about the rocky start of our relationship and its positive shift. Giving a little extra time and care really makes a difference.

There still is grace in the world.

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What I’m Reading

Tracking Wonder: Reclaiming a Life of Meaning and Possibility in a World Obsessed with Productivity by Jeffery Davis

This book was recently recommended to me and, as if I were a child, I’m enjoying re-connecting with wonder. I start by adding tiny wonder moments to my day…seeing shapes of trees, animals and dragons in billowy white clouds; feeling the cold air on my skin for a few minutes just before I head to bed…simple moments that bring creativity and joy.