There I was in the checkout lane at the co-op with my three beautiful carrots having just been weighed and priced. The cashier, a delightful young woman with beautiful long red hair, went to pick up my carrots and move them onto the platform for me to bag them when her hand accidentally brushed the top of one unintentionally. From there, it was an unfolding that like so many things, we watch and experience completely out of control while we see exactly what’s going to happen. And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. That beautiful, ripe, perfectly crisp carrot rolled off the scale and directly down into the crack in between the cashier’s table and the bagging table. Wedged perfectly. That thing was not going anywhere. Neither one of us had a hand small enough to get into the inch-and-a-half wide crack to scoop that baby up and claim it. We both stared at each other, then the carrot, then looked back up at each other. Hopeless.
At my house we have been under an extreme amount of stress the last few months between finishing a cabin, hosting a wedding reception, attending some very heart-wrenching funerals, prepping my 25-year home and sanctuary for sale, dismantling my gorgeous front yard garden, and purchasing a farm an hour and a half away from my community, friends, and my family. It’s been a bit much.
I stood there and could do nothing but absolutely laugh. The powerlessness both myself and the cashier felt as we watched that carrot roll down in the crack knowing neither other of us was going to do anything to stop it was absolutely priceless. I laughed and laughed and laughed until the cashier laughed with me and everyone in line behind us was laughing as well. I reminded the cashier, who now felt absolutely horrible about knocking the carrot in between the crack, that timing was an amazing thing to be held in simultaneously high regard and always taken with a note of humor and curiosity.
So often we ask the question: why? Why did this happen to me? Why is this going on now? What did I do to deserve this? All the Y questions only lead us to more why questions and more frustrations. At this moment, I smiled and reminded her that the timing was required in order for that carrot to fall exactly where it did to roll perfectly in absolute alignment with that crack so that it could fall all the way to the bottom to the floor was absolutely perfect in some realm somewhere there was a need an intention for such action. While I won’t claim to ever understand the need for that carrot hitting the floor and the two of us standing there watching it (as if in slow motion), I also trust there is some small, if nothing else, humorous mystery unfolding at that moment. I believe in timing. I believe that everything happens the way it needs to happen at exactly the right time in order for us to take our next step forward. In order for us to evolve, grow, and expand into the glorious creations we chose as souls and spirits to come here to express and experience ourselves. Most days I’m really cool with that, lately perhaps less so. If nothing else, that carrot casually rolling towards its destiny, the floor, without angst or tension was my reminder to stop and laugh. Life is not really as serious as I make it. Every need and every resource is totally available to me at all times, and I am perfectly ok.
Mind the timing, and with that said, always remember to carry a notion of mystery, of curiosity about what is unfolding. Keep laughter in your front pocket where it is most easily accessible.
Forever the journey, Anne