How grocery shopping became spiritually fruitful
Happy Eastertide my friends. I hope you are still celebrating, it is an octave after all. If you are one of those Easter celebrators who are only in it for the pastel clothes, brunch with mimosas, and chocolate on Sunday you are cheating yourselves. To fully embrace the joy of the Resurrection will take at least eight days. Catholics know how to party.
As I type this I am waiting for my Instacart delivery with a joy I usually reserve for things like European vacations and new purses. You see I gave up grocery delivery for Lent. There were a few other penances and while thinking about what I would do for Lent and making a note of ways I could dive deeper spiritually I just tossed in the thought, “Oh and I’ll give up Instacart for grocery delivery.” I waited a few days for the idea to sink in and I took it to prayer, along with those other penances and practices to see if this was meant to be and I did feel like this was something I should do.
Photo by Maria Lin Kim on Unsplash
I was pretty annoyed about it. You see, a few years ago I decided something had to go. I have a full-time job, and I homeschool three teenagers. I volunteer at church, a lot, and I am mostly in charge of housecleaning (they all help) and meal planning and prep (all me). That’s a lot and going to the supermarket was one of those things that I had a lot of trouble squeezing into my life. Plus I don’t care for food shopping. I actually like cleaning, I know it’s weird, and I enjoy cooking but the procurement of food is annoying to me so I use Instacart for grocery delivery and occasionally I use Walmart pick-up service.
This is a long way to explain that giving up grocery delivery was something that was going to throw a kink in my carefully constructed routines. It occurred to me to wonder why I felt so strongly I was supposed to do it.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was supposed to love my neighbor more. Shortly after Ash Wednesday I made an early morning trip to Aldi for a few things. The store had a few people in it but wasn’t by any means crowded. I was walking toward the cashiers and I saw one wave me over so I went and started unpading my cart of about ten items. Suddenly I heard a scream. Not a yell or a shout but a scream. It scared the hell out of me. I turned and there was a woman, who looked like a normal person except that she was red-faced and screaming that I stole her place in line. She had been waiting on another line, which I did not even notice, and she thought she was entitled to my spot. I thought so too, I didn’t realize that there was another line going and I told her I was happy to move and let her go on ahead.
Nope. She wasn’t having it. She told me to go ahead and proceeded to call me a bunch of names that would make a longshoreman blush. The cashier was apologizing under his breath and the whole store was watching.
I’m not one to shy away from confrontation but I’m also not going around looking for it either and the next level anger of this woman was a little frightening.
I scooted myself out of there quickly and when I finally got in my car I took a deep breath and realized I was shaking. “You know,” I said to the Almighty, “this would not have happened had You let me order my groceries.” Yes, I was snippy to the Almighty. With that, I heard in my head, “Well then who would pray for her?”
Damn.
So I prayed for the lady who had shaken me up so much and as I did so I saw her walk out to her car carrying her few items and she looked unhappy. I don’t think her outburst helped her at all and I can only hope my, initially reluctant murmured prayers did.
I didn’t have any other dramatic moments while shopping but there were plenty of opportunities to pray for people and I took advantage of all of them. I also managed to offer up some of the inconveniences for some intentions. It also forced me to be organized differently and it was a penance for my family as I often had to give them some half-assed dinner because I neglected to get to the store.
Suffering everywhere I tell you.
I know it seems silly but there are so many of us just trying to get through the day and get it all done and those big, huge sacrifices are hard to come by. Giving up coffee or wine or hot showers becomes easier as you do them every year, even pleasurable as you break off with something that had a hold on you, you might look forward to it, but forcing yourself to do something you dislike and making it a spiritual practice? It was a little life-changing for me this year.
I guess the point is that even what seems like a small penance can be very fruitful spiritually. I hope that lady is happier now. I also hope we are never on the same line again.
This is a beautiful piece about home written by Emily Stimpson Chapman. If you are not a subscriber to her newsletter you should make the jump, she’s worth it.
I’ve been reading a series of books that I want to review for you and I’m going to get that out, tomorrow. Maybe Saturday. I’ve read six of the twenty-something books in the series and I think I can give you a good idea about whether it’s your cup of tea.
In case you missed it I have a podcast. Doesn’t everyone have a podcast? Anyway this one is sponsored by Seton Home Study School and it’s all about homeschooling, Catholic family life, and getting your laundry done. It’s called The Stay at Homeschooling Mom Podcast and you can find it anywhere you would listen to a podcast if that kind of thing interests you. We just started dropping our season two episodes but there are about 60 in season one so there is a lot there.