Staying in my sunbeam

It was 80 degrees yesterday, and you know how retail stores are. If it’s warmer than 75 degrees out, you can bet you’ll be shivering inside. I was fine until I ate lunch, when all my warm, cozy blood went to my stomach to participate in the digestive party and left the rest of my body out in the cold. Even my cardigan couldn’t keep the chill off, and I walked customers to the shelves, shivering. I made the mistake of mentioning the cold to an old grump, and she took that as an opportunity to go into a tirade, not unlike my own here, about how cold it was and I don’t understand why they feel the need to turn the A/C down so low, dipping her head and giving me eyebrow gestures to let me know she thought I should notify a manager of the situation.

I smiled and nodded, and gracefully escaped her to go cover someone’s break up at the cash register. As there were no customers in line, I took advantage of a pool of warm light by the front window. I stood there, absorbing the sunlight and thinking, cats have it made, laying around all day in sunbeams. I thought of Garfield, and that slanted beam of light Jim Davis always drew him in. The sunbeam always stuck with me about Garfield. That and the lasagna. It never clicked as a kid that cats don’t eat lasagna, but as an adult it finally occurred to me to wonder, what’s up with that? A cat who loves lasagna? I don’t get it.

A customer ahem-ed me out of my reverie, and I apologized profusely for standing in the sunbeam while she waited patiently for me to finish my daydreams. While I rang up her purchase we laughed and carried on about how good the sunbeam felt, and how I had moved here from Minnesota, and isn’t the weather glorious today? As we said goodbye, fast friends now, she pointed to my little puddle of light and said, “You stay in your sunbeam!” I liked that. Stay in your sunbeam. So I did.

I wrote this between customers today, on tiny scraps of paper, when I was covering another 15 minute break.  The sunbeam wasn’t there anymore, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t stay in it.  I was inspired by my friend Liv’s recent piece, how to claim your fortune, about messages we receive throughout the day.  You should read it.  I think you’ll like it.