Bluelight Special on Aisle Twelve

I'm not much of a shopper.

I pretty much am the poster-child for what they call the typical male shopper. I'm a hunter. I know what I want before I step into the store. I figure out where the correct department is, go there immediately without collecting 200 dollars, I grab what I'm looking for, head to the nearest cashier, pay and exit.

There is one store where I change from the hunter role into what I like to call the "browser". I could possibly spend up to four hours in this store, and it's really not that big. Today my family and I went there, and if it wasn't for little miss two-year-old "this store is not in the mall, therefore I will not be able to ride the carousel or run around and chase a bouncy ball and eat at Chick-Fil-A, so I will give you fifteen minutes and then I'll throw a hissy fit" Noelle. Of course, since she's two, I feel her pain and happily oblige. But like I said, I could spend hours at this store.

It's called "Cost-Plus World Market". Today as I was perusing the Indian basket section (Indian baskets? Would I ever actually buy one of these?), I was trying to figure out why I love this store so much.

I figured out the reason. In my quest to slow down my life and enjoy it, I have rediscovered what it means to actually experience things. I mean, really experience things. I think it stems from reading a chapter in Leonard Sweet's book "SoulSalsa" (I highly recommend it), where he was obviously speaking to just me when he wrote this certain chapter. He said to me that too many people just fly through life without really living and he challenged me to experience life by using all of my senses. You know, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and of course, seeing dead people. I haven't developed the sixth sense yet, but I'm on a quest to experience life by concentrating on my senses. When I eat a meal, I focus on my taste sense and really actually taste my food, rather than wolfing it down. When I go into Yankee Candle Company, I shed my hunter skin and actually try to smell almost all of the candles in the store, even the ones I don't really like too much.

Which brings me to Cost Plus World Market.

This place is amazing to me, because I get to use all of my senses throughout the store. I go over to the papasan chair section and I look at all the different designs of cushions that you can buy. I go to the pictures section and look at all of the paintings and photographs that are on display (especially stopping at my favorite Van Gogh painting - "Starry Night". I really need to buy that some time). They have an assortment of foods and coffees, and so I go over to that section and smell all of the wonderful smells. They always have some kind of world music on the speakers overhead, so I get to experience music from Pakistan or Bolivia or somewhere else that I would never be able to visit but through their music. I take my hand and run it across the handmade tables and chairs and feel the craftsmanship of someone in a far away country. And sometimes they have samples of their chips or some other type of food product that they sell - satisfying my taste sense.

I'm trying to experience life, and if it takes driving to Cost Plus World Market to remind me of this, then I will do so.