I love shopping at flea markets. Luckily for me, there are flea markets almost every weekend around Los Angeles. What I love most is the element of surprise. You can’t plan for what you want to shop for at the flea market, so it provides me a place and time to be open and see what catches my attention and resonates with me in that moment.
While I always have a running list of things I’m looking for – a cool bowl to put on the tray on my ottoman in the living room, ceramic tiles for a project in my garden, fun vintage earrings in red or purple – I never know what I’m going to stumble across and fall in love with. Many times I fall in love with things that while worth it, are exorbitantly expensive (like the wooden napkin holder in the shape of a woman in a hoop skirt at the Santa Monica Airport flea market a few months ago) and just not practical for my life now. But even then I’m so excited to have seen such a cool thing.
Flea markets are also a green way to shop. Everything there is already in this world, so why not put it to use instead of buying cheap new things from China. I love the history too. Who knew that children’s play kitchens used to be metal and probably quite dangerous to play around, but after seeing some on a tour of Castle Green in Pasadena, I started seeing them (and buying them) at the flea market.
Anyway, why in the world am I droning on about flea markets? Well, on Saturday after my fun morning at the flea market, a few other plans I had for the day did not go the way I expected. Through my yoga practice, I’ve learned when things don’t go as planned to just take a deep breath, stay fluid and go with whatever comes my way – most of the time. Not so much on Saturday. I became a mess: grumpy, mopey and even snappy to my husband a few times.
Sunday, after a lovely bike ride to church and excellent sermon, I was able to put things in perspective. What I realized is that I need to approach all areas of my life the way I approach the flea market: having in mind some of the things I hope to come across or accomplish on my journey, but then being open and excited at what I might find that had never even crossed my mind.
We all have goals and dreams, and our modern society teaches us to push and work our butts off for the things we want. But does that really make us happy? Yes, many things in life are better planned, but if we get too rigid I think we miss out on smelling the roses and the excitement of what will happen next!
Fantastic post, great comparison!