It opened just over a week ago. I’ve been there four times since then.

Our new Whole Foods market in town is amazing.

There is parking galore!
There are aisles full of new foods (new for me).
There are at least three sit-down areas to eat.

I love to browse the aisles. Bins of beans, seeds and cereals. Numerous brands and products I’ve never seen before. Samples of cheeses I’ve never tasted.

But why now? Why this fascination with foods?

It may have started with a recent hobby: Wednesday mornings, I am organizing the refrigerator.

By taking everything out of the refrigerator and combining, dumping and locating foods I forgot I had, I realized that I had not changed my eating habits in a long time. Sure, I know what I like and what I don’t like, but what about the foods I’ve never tasted? Would I like them?

Thanks to the fortuitous temporal juxtaposition of my brand new market, and my brand new urge to try new foods, I have a new hobby: cruising the lanes of my new market.

Why did I have to WAIT for this to take place? There are certainly Whole Foods Markets in the area. There were plenty of times I looked through the refrigerator. I suppose the answer lies in the “spark of readiness.” It’s like the mixing of chemicals: once in awhile you get a REACTION.

Think about what has given you the impulse to start a new hobby or activity. Why didn’t you start it earlier?

How long will my new hobby last? I can never predict how long a hobby will last. What I can predict, however, is that after the thrill of this hobby subsides, there is another hobby just lurking in the shadows. That is part of the excitement of my life.

Enjoy!

robertebsen@hotmail.com