Parking Lot Blessings and Reflections through the Windshield

The Grocery Store: Parking Lot Blessings and Reflections through the Windshield

When we give, we receive and when we look, we see. Life in its everyday ordinary garb is filled with treasures; the bits and pieces that make up our world, that make us unique yet one.

Sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store while waiting on my husband, my experience of this was two-fold: I first decided to try sending a blessing to everyone I saw. This led me to the conclusion that if you are busy blessing others, you do not have time to judge them. Eventually, instead of looking at people’s presumed flaws, differences or otherwise, you are looking to see if you have overlooked anyone; seeing everyone the same because they all deserve a blessing all the while feeling blessed to be there seeing them. It was quite an enlightening experience and begs a daily practice.

During the parking lot blessings, I saw a teen-aged redheaded girl who worked at the grocery store, come out to get the buggies. She reminded me of myself at seventeen; working at the grocery store and going out to get the buggies, with my whole life ahead of me. I then wondered if one day when she is fifty-eight, she will be sitting in a grocery store parking lot watching a teen-aged redhead girl bring in the buggies and be reminded of the same. And was there a fifty-eight year-old former grocery checker watching the seventeen year-old me bring in the carts and thinking the same thing? It was kind of a circle-of-life thing which I noticed while listening to the Beatles in the car as Paul was singing, “When I’m sixty-four.” I recalled how that song used to be at the other end of the spectrum and sixty-four seemed a lifetime away, and now this year my husband will turn sixty-four, as will I in a few short years. Had I not looked up to bless this girl, I would not have received this enlightenment.

Giving to others brings more gifts upon us. Looking out at others and the world, teaches us so much about our self which we can then in turn gift again to others. It is the cycle of giving and learning, learning and giving even if it’s in a parking lot through a windshield; wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we can give and learn and grow.

About Cheryl Yale-Bruedigam

Cheryl Yale-Bruedigam has been writing spiritually for thirty years. With undergraduate studies in English and women's studies, she devoted over a decade of research and writing to women’s studies and spirituality. Author of What If We Are the Angels and The New Age of Christ (among others), she is now teaching and sharing A Woman's Path to Wholeness Through Biblical Teachings.

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