What Trader Joes has taught me about life, love...and hoarding.

I walked into Trader Joes for the first time about five years ago. I tasted their infamous Goddess dressing  at a friend’s house and I knew I had to get to my hands on a bottle or three. The next day, I went in for salad dressing and almost instantly joined the TJs fan club. I recently found an old grocery list from 2008 and all it said was Goddess dressing. Ha!

Although changes in eating habits have created a wedge between me and what is still to this day my favorite dressing, I have discovered a lot about myself walking through the sometimes cramped aisles of Trader Joes.

- HOARDING: hoarding is okay, until it is not. 

There is only so much space you can stuff items in, until it becomes out of hand. I went through a phase when seaweed snacks were the best things ever invented in my world. Every time I walked into the store, I would buy at least 2 packs, until I ended up with a giant pile of seaweed snacks and no taste for them. By the time, the stack was higher than my cupboards, I had already moved on to coconut chips (yum!). I am pretty sure I have learned my lesson though… I have given away as many seaweed snacks as I could, except one, as a reminder. Sure, hoarding material things can be a comfort to some, but it took me some time to figure out that there were more important things in life, like my family and my friends.

The ONLY exception to this  is seasonal items… there may or may not be a stack of Christmas peppermint green tea in my cupboard at the time I am writing this post....

(What is this?)

- LOVE: cherish what you have, when you have it, because it may be gone in an instant. 

Sometime it is gone until the next truck comes along, other times, it is gone forever. Sure it may come back after a while and you may think that things will be the same or even better. That is until you realize that something is definitely off. That’s right, I am talking to YOU Everything crackers... I am not sure what they did to you while you were gone for so long, but the impostor on the shelves does not taste anything like you. You are nothing like the delicious cracker I tasted so long ago. Unless...unless… I am too stuck in my memories of you to realize that it is time to move on and try new things…

Speaking of!

-LIFE: move on...don’t be afraid to try new things. 

I am somewhat of a creature of habit, and this one is hard for me to stick to. For years, I walked into Trader Joes with a list of my favorite things, and bought the same items over and over. Until the day, they ran out of my favorite wine. I thought I was going to cry in the cluttered wine aisle. When a crew member tried to recommend their favorite wine, I decided to give it a shot. I hated it! Thankfully, that is kind of the point… learning to try new things. While I find comfort in knowing that tasting something I don’t like is not the end of the world, I sometimes find myself shying away from new experiences. I am getting better though, it is all a process, right?

This being a new year, and all, while I have decided to once again not have resolutions that I will break in the first three weeks; I am ready to try more things, visit different places, set new goals, and open my heart a little more.

Here is to 2014! Cheers!

eed