Shopping on an empty stomach

Pretend you are in the grocery store with a list in your hands. Even though you only need a few items, you still use a cart. Just in case. You of course can't just head for the items you have on the list, you go up and down each isle looking at all the colorful product on the shelf. As you go along you pick up items that are on sale, look interesting and might satisfy that growling hunger in your stomach. By the time you get to the checkout you have filled your cart and end up paying way more than you had planned. After getting home and hauling all of your goods into the house you glance at your list and realize that you have forgotten half the items you should have brought home.

Life is a little like that when you think about it. You don't just choose the items you need in life but end up obtaining a lot of things that were not important and you really had not planned on. Some times your choices are of value but often the choices that are made are not always good for us and will only drag us down.
In the end we still have to pay for our choices and usually pay much more than we wanted. Looking back you think of all those important people and ideals and memories you should have acquired but missed out on because of being sidetracked. Why is it that we don't realize earlier in our lives that our shopping cart is not always heading down the right isle. I have a little sign I was given years ago that says. "We grow too soon old and too late smart" Hopefully before we get to the checkout we can pick up those items we had almost forgotten. I am going to try to be a wiser shopper from now on.