When I got to Costco for warm-up this morning, I seemed off my game, and never dreamed it would be a “touchdown” day! Maybe it was because I only needed three items today, and didn't have a cart to ground me.

I walked to the back of the store to get the bag of broccoli florets, the bag of Brussels sprouts and the double-pack of egg whites, and then headed for the cashier.

It was here that I felt myself coming up short.

When rolling along with my cart, I pride myself on my perfect timing while zipping between two other oncoming carts. When coming out of a side aisle into a main cart lane, I normally make my turn with catlike reflexes, so fast that I didn't feel I needed to buy the Cart Collision Insurance that time they offered it!

But today I misjudged five situations and had five near crack-ups on that single return back up to the cashier. I finally got there and she rang me out, but noticed that my broccoli package was torn, so I volunteered to get another one myself. She put my other two items in a box and kept them while I returned to the cold room, at the other end of the store, to get an unripped bag.

It was here, tucking the bag of broccoli neatly to my chest and cradling it with both arms, that I began to redeem myself. I gained four yards on “first down” before being upended by a cart coming up quickly from behind. On “second down,” I was tackled after only making two yards—double-teamed by a cart coming from the 23rd aisle and another appearing suddenly from behind the produce.

But on “third down,” I got through and did the best broken-field running of my career!

I did an end run around an employee with a huge cart bearing a stack of wooden pallets; leapt over a janitor's dry-mop as he swept; had to stiff-arm a display of cookie boxes; and cut between a Mom and her little girl, who was running to bring her a piggy-in-a-blanket sample, without getting a dirty look from either!

Then I was out in the open. I sprinted all the way to the cashier station with the box containing my other (already-paid-for!) items, and placed the bag of broccoli in the box the way I would a baby—setting it down with both hands. Following that, I pointed up, for all to see, to the One who’d given me such talent!

The credit is His, not mine.

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image: Max Reif

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