KMART LANDMINE

After being home for four and a half days, I was so happy to do some of my errands out and about, after "fixing" my face that is healing from a melanoma excision and still has three ladders of stitches. Our local Kmart is the Company Store, and carries many products impossible to find elsewhere. I was shopping for a gift for my granddaughter in the young girls' department.

A mom and her 5-year old were shopping too. They had found a pair of mittens for the little girl who was pleased with their look and feel. I was taken aback when Mom said, "Well, I'm not happy with the peace signs on them. Maybe we can pull them off."

The little girl responded, "I like them. Why should we pull them off?"

The woman just turned and walked away from her daughter with no reply.

I'd forgotten peace is political, and still unpopular. As a lifetime peacenik I've been enjoying our old sign showing up in the box stores, on jewelry, and on teenagers who haven't a clue how hard won their little symbol is. I felt instantly sorry for the fresh young mind that wanted peace but lived with a woman who didn't.

Every day may we seek peace. On awakening, in meditation, in our vehicles, in our relationships. May we keep generating the most potent energy we can, straight from Source, Mother Earth, or wherever your plug-in is.

I scanned my mind for a gentle response to one or both of the shoppers, but there was none apparent. I needed to walk by the mom to go elsewhere in the store and chose to go another route. I felt ashamed not to offer her peace silently and genuinely, as I passed.

I found myself at the jewelry kiosk starring at rhinestone peace symbols in earrings, necklaces and dangling from bracelets. I couldn't bring myself to buy one for my granddaughter. I don't know how she feels about wearing obvious symbols, although I know she's against animal testing, and hates bullies. Instead I found a single pearl, perfect for her inner nature which is pure as snow as she enters her
14th year.

What I thought would be a routine Kmart foray turned into food for thought, an opportunity for self examination and reflection. I remembered a line from Rumi: "Even though you have broken your vow a thousand times, come, come again."