In October, during my birthday evening, I drove to one of my favorite shopping centers that I try to stay away from. This center offers one of my favorite stores, World Market, but I decided to treat myself by walking through to see all the pretties.

I enjoy every area of the store and Halloween hadn’t even arrived yet, but they had shelves of Christmas on display. My two favorite departments are the food and kitchen areas, so I waited until the final walk through to linger among the kitchen items. I love the clearance section because it reminds me of a shelf of misfit toys. The cookie jar with no lid, or one tea cup, from a set of two and it was there that I noticed the tray which looked like something you’d see if France, but for half price.

My inner critic perked up to talk me out of purchasing the tray, but it was perfect for what I had in mind. I’d been thinking about selling my coffee maker because I never use it. When I first purchased it, I used it a handful of times, but since seeing Dr. Jason, I’ve opted for one cup of organic instant and wanted a tray to hold my coffee choices today. I decided to leave the store without the tray and give it 3 days.

Three days is my little test with fate. If I see something I really like, but don’t need, I give it time for the urge to subside. If it’s still on my mind three days later, I’ll return to the store to see if it’s still there. If not it wasn’t meant to be, but my patience and self control grew during the wait.

The tray never left my mind and I felt like it was the perfect size for it’s intended use, so three days later, I returned to World Market to find the tray still laying in the same place. I took it up to the register to pay and came home.

I packed the coffee maker in it’s original box to list it online for sale and seeing how big that box is made me realize how my life is becoming even more simplified. Seeing the tray waiting for me in the kitchen this morning I couldn’t help but think that my life is finally becoming just the right size.