the little warrior

It's rainy, nothing to do, bored, and nowhere to go.  So, off I went to just roam around the stores, up and down aisles, looking at all the wonderful art supplies and wanting them all.   And then stopping at Safeway to pick up some extras for dinner.  I was just roaming aimlessly through the store finishing up when my senses were distracted by a huge presence.  I stopped in my tracks viewing this energy with a wary eye.  Roaring through the front doors of Safeway was this wee wisp of a woman, bearing down on me with all the force of an Indy driver in the last lap of the race.  Her eyes were set, she was focused on her quarry, hands gripped tightly on her cart with a sense of purpose.  Her glasses perched low on her nose below her eyes, a look of determination on her face.  This force of a woman had to be ninety if she were a day.  One of the four-footers, you know, the older shrinking generation, and no more than 4'10" tall, if even that.  The wind kicked up behind her as she plowed past and I could almost hear the roar of a crowd as she raced by.  She was neatly and tidy, gray/blonde with a little roll of her hair just below the ears - a roll that gave her a look as if wearing a helmet.  She was fierce, strong, and good lord, she pushed that cart like a champion.  Through and down the aisle she passed me while I stood there watching this warrior at her mission.

She raced through the store.  Sweet, little, old lady, hah.  Well, sweet certainly not, but little and old.  We see so many elders these days who hobble along bent over, or wheeling past in their Larks, the struggle to maintain their strength and independence.  This woman was a force of nature.  Fierce, purposed and fleet.  I simply shook my head and laughed, she made my day.  For all my amusement, she charged her way to the checkout stand, finishing before me I might add, a cart full of her spoils for the day.  She purposely grabbed the bags from the cart the checker loaded them into, marched back out the store to her chariot, whoops, her SUV, loaded the bags and hopped back in, grabbed the reins, whoops again, started her up and ready to ride out from the war charged with horn blaring out the parking lot homeward bound.

This surely was a once in a lifetime vision to behold - a sight such as she.  I had wished I'd had my camera, all I have though are a few words to remember her by.  Hells' bells, what a woman.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

And it smelled like it did when I was a child

Image
And suddenly it smelled like it did when I was a child, yes, I remember it well.  Some of our senses seem to have memory, something I noticed years ago.  My first apartment on my own, walking in and looking around liking what I saw, windows all round the place, lots of light, a garden apartment with grass outside, nice big kitchen, window over the sink, a little niche in the hallway where a phone once resided, a building built awhile ago with all the character of it's time, arches, tile, comfort.  And then opened a cupboard door, the delicate smell there took me back to grandma's house, her kitchen pantry next to the back door.  And all the senses then kicked in, the sound of the seat pushing back, the shopping bags stuffed in the corner, the sound of the screen door slapping against the door frame and the squeak when it opened, the three cement steps out the back door, the smell of breakfast, the shape of my grandmother working at the stove.  The sound of foot...
Read more

Mercury retrograde

Image
If you believe in the ebb and flow of influence in the universe you may know of the backward movement of Mercury, the retrograde.  It is still moving forward and yet appears moving backward.  That's life isn't it, on a path you keep walking yet circle back or need to step back to gain momentum to move forward. Some think Mercury retrograde is detrimental and self-defeating if one is trying to make continuous unimpeded progress.  I've come to another train of thought.  I look at it as if rowing a boat, you pull and stroke to propel the boat forward, yet as you lift the oars to stroke again you lose a bit of momentum and just glide.  With your continuous movement the oars re-enter the water to pull against the resistance and move you forward once again. Good lesson for life - even a car has to sit and idle at a traffic light, we can't always move forward without momentary glides, and stops, before we act again to help us gain more momentum.  We neverthel...
Read more

I've fallen and I don't want to get back up

Image
It seems in the spiritual world the message these days is about falling, and making sure to get up.  They are words of encouragement to be sure, reminding us that no matter how we fall, no matter what life hands us, the measure of who we are is that we get up again.  Well I've got some experience with that, spent most of my life like a Jack-in-the-box, always brushing off when life hit hard, jumped right back up and into the fray, refusing to be undone by challenges. ...and life happened. Today I found myself wanting to argue with that, was tired of the message about getting back up. One more comment and I was seeing red, I wanted to argue, wanted to scream that sometimes you can't get back up, you don't want to face the life, certainly not where you've been and not the challenge, the battles, the failure, the difficulty, and sometimes you just don't have the strength to get back up.  Sometimes,  there is nothing left to stand on. So, it left me mulling over ...
Read more