Thought and Poem

Thought and Poem – August 16, 2014

I have done it. You have done it. We all have done it. Done what? We have all gone to the store to buy just “one” item and have been lured by the advertising to by more than what we wanted to buy. How many times have you gone to a superstore for just milk and came home with fifteen bags of groceries, yet forgetting to purchase the one thing you needed...the milk?

As mature and educated adults, why is it that we are easily swayed by the gimmicks that surround us in the stores. You start out going to the dairy aisle and you pass these TV screens that play colorful baits already on the hook ready to reel someone in. Somehow the “colorful clearance signs” have you distracted and the next thing you know…you are in the clothing section. Your cart now has a little bit of this and some more of that and what it doesn’t have is your “milk.”

I am going to start wearing blindfolds when I go shopping from now on. I am going to work on staying focus and to not be distracted by what I see, hear or smell when I enter the stores from now on! I am going to keep my eyes simple and I WILL NOT be baited anymore to buy things I do not need, even if they are on sale. ( Well, maybe just a few things.)

What about you? How do you keep your eyes simple when shopping so that you buy what you intended to buy when you entered the store and actually come out with it? Share your thoughts with us…Jeanne Claire Probst

Keeping our eyes simple is not an easy thing to do,

Sale posters and all their colors jump out at you,

As you walk along the aisles in the store,

You look and look, and look some more.

Something catches your eyes...

And at first you aim to deny,

But then you look at the colors and textures,

And then you look at the price tag, your final lure.

Just like the fish taking the bait on the hook,

You should have stayed out of the store, but you just wanted to look,

And like the fish that took the bait,

To keep your eyes simple…well…it is too late.

Your cart is full like a cooler full of fish

When coming home from a fishing trip,

And now that you have bagged your items and have made it out to the car,

You look at all your purchase and you wonder how you allowed yourself to get this far.

Three blouses in the bag, you probably will never wear,

But will land in your home closets and just about anywhere,

Until the day comes when you want to clean the closets,

Then into a different bag go the three blouses to be dropped off at the “Goodwill” donation box for a deposit.

You vow to keep your eyes simple, but you will never learn,

And you head back to the store you just know you will be lured

Keeping your eyes simple is too difficult of a test,

You got baited and hooked again, and your full cart tells us the rest.

Jeanne Claire Probst

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