Finding Awe in the Everyday

Jody Alyn
ILLUMINATION
Published in
4 min readFeb 3, 2023

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We’ve come a long way from Muzak in the grocery store.

Watercolor drops in purple, red, pink and yellow
Photo credit: Ami Mataraj/Shutterstock.com

I never go to Trader Joe’s. Too much hype. Never could find what I needed. But it is nestled between and next door to Whole Foods and the Kroger store, a mile and a half from where I live now. Everyone else was out of broccoli, so I went there.

It was dark and drizzly at 8 PM. As I walked up the concrete steps to the store from the sidewalk on the busy avenue, wild foot-stompin’, banjo- and guitar-pickin’ music blared over an outdoor loudspeaker.

Inside, it was almost as loud. And it felt as if everyone in this crowded supermarket was dancing. People were smiling broadly, nodding at one another in time to the rhythms as they picked out their produce.

Two young men, maybe students, were shopping together. They grinned at each other. The one with the grocery list tapped his hands and wiggled his torso as he pushed their cart down the aisle. The other subtly but oh-so-skillfully flatfooted some flowers and fava beans into their basket.

Though out of broccoli, Trader Joe’s had plantain chips for $1.99 a bag. This is easily half the price anywhere else. I grabbed three(!) bags as the bluegrass band’s tune shifted, surprisingly, into improvisational jam band mode, ala the Grateful Dead. This was some kind of grocery store music. I got through the…

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Jody Alyn
ILLUMINATION

Inclusion strategist. Justice advocate. Former therapist. Focus on social identity, implicit bias. Mom. G-ma. Life is a process—I write about it.