Singing in Grocery Store

Create Your Day

Have you ever sang with a friend in a grocery store?

We both laughed. He looked at me, and if I were to interpret the moment, he smiled at how very much we have in common. So much can happen from connection and joy. Human beings are wired to create and connect. We can fly twice as high — together,

Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash

I am mindful of what I can control when it comes to what my son consumes, in food or content. That is a a very carefully worded sentence because I can control very, very little. Perhaps, it is better said that I make sure he is nourished.

Which can make screen title a battle very rarely worth it. When looking for a TV treat, I remembered Reading Rainbow. It was one of my ABSOLUTE favorites as a kid. I sang along immediately with the opening song.

The show actually teaches children things of interest; I know because my son brings up the scenarios in the show at dinner, or in the corn field (when he remembered we make plastic from corn), or on a walk when he started making new shadow puppets he had seen.

Anyway, the day before the U.S. election, also called yesterday, we were walking into the grocery store and I was singing the theme song. My son, getting a little older, was getting a little nervous as we go closer to the store. I was explaining that everyone loved Reading Rainbow, and as I pulled out my shopping cart there was a man of my opposite. Meaning, I am small. He is tall. I am think; he was decidedly muscular. I am pale; he was dark. But we were both older. So I took a chance and said, “Do you remember Reading Rainbow?”

He looked at me, then my son, cleared his throat and started: “Butterfly in the skyyyyy——”

I joined in and we both turned to my befuddled son and sang: “I can fly twice as high, take a look it’s in a book, a Reading Rainbow!”

We both laughed. He looked at me, and if I were to interpret the moment, we saw how very much we have in common, and how easily joy for children overflows into communal joy. So much can happen from connection and joy. Human beings are wired to create and connect. We traveled about thirty some years in one moment.

He actually found us in the store later, and said “You should put on Schoolhouse Rock for him. You remember?”

“I do! How did I not think of that one?”

“A kid like that,” he winks at my son, “can learn a lot. He’ll like it.”

I thanked him and we wished each other a good day.

My son smiled at me a little befuddled, at how a stranger became a friend so easily. And why? “It always pays to be kind,” I smiled at him.

Have a Blessed Day,

Kate

P.s. Did you know that the word “pay” and “peace” have the same Latin root: pax