ANSWERS to my weekly Question (now number 2) - open to you and all

#BECOMING #QUESTIONS 2

I asked if you would answer another question.

My questions each week is open to you and everybody.

Please consider joining in - please?

The second question 2/52 is below with my answer first - then a flow of other beautiful humans.

MY QUESTION TO YOU

QUESTION 2)  

IF LIFE was a Supermarket - what shelf would you be on? - and WHY?

* I will always answer with my own answer/reflection first::

I see myself in the bin at the end of the aisle

with other items past their ‘sell-by-date’

alongside damaged packages, dinted food tins, bruised fruit and veg.

Attracting the poorest of shoppers including the homeless.

WHY? (please always say WHY)

I have always felt deeply for those beautiful humans who lacking in their lives.

Even at 15 years old I befriended the kids who had dirty skin, unwashed clothes and in some cases no real shoes.

I see damaged anything emotionally. I feel I want to be there, offering the sparse offerings I have, as much as I can.

Pip Wilson.

I'd be on the stationary isle somewhere because I'm a bit creative some of the time, definitely useful for lots of different things, could be any colour or shape and some people would rely on me.

Julia

I would be the exotic fruit that a few people choose.

Why? I've always felt different to other blokes, the sporty beer drinkers, yet been attractive to those who appreciate the passionate, creative spark inside me.

Ian

I see myself flitting between the bottom shelf and middle. I start on the middle shelf as I try so hard to help others and do good, but then my faith in some human beings takes a knock and I end up being knocked down to the bottom shelf again. 

Sue

I am on the medicine shelf. I am CALPOL because I like the taste and it makes me better.

Conniepops age 6

I'd be on the shelf at eye height. I would be the thing that you spot first, and the thing you would remember even if you didn't buy me.  Why - because I matter. 

Because after 26 years, I've uncovered the truth. Alongside the wondrous gift of training to be a therapist - I have really internalized a sense of validity, of mattering. 

I do not need to be the chosen one, and if I'm not - this no longer inidicates that I'm "left". It's simply that today our paths crossed momentarily - and in that moment you mattered to me, and I mattered to you. 

Jolene

I would probably be on the medicine shelf, as I always try to help people feel better, and look after them. 

V

The one before the top - I will always be striving to get to the top but will never get there myself. That is my mentality that allows me to try and get better...but maybe one day someone (God) will put me on the top shelf.

Zam

After working on my truck all weekend it's safe to say I'm destined for the 'reduced item' shelf... Not as sprightly as I used to be!

Jon

I'd be in the greetings cards section - quietly waiting to be chosen to bring a little friendly message to someone.

WHY? I like to be friendly to others but I'm quite shy also, so not often proactive about it: I need another person (or my working role) to 'choose' me to be in a position to share that friendliness.

John

What shelf.....

Well that's a difficult one.... Part of me would be with the 'everyday great value' - because I love my working class roots, and being connected with all walks of every day life - I am happy to stand out in a corporate environment for being me when I watch the ego's in the room. 

The other part of me wants to be in the organic section - I want to be 'good' that is good for the soul for everybody I come across. 

My mantra is that I would like to be able to add a tiny something good to everybody I bump into each day :-)

The smallest of things can make a difference….

Michelle

Not sure about a shelf - as they keep moving them around!!! - but i’d definitely be in the aisle where all the toilet rolls, kitchen rolls - elephant bog roll we call them - and continence pads, E45 cream for old crocks, Dettol all purpose cleaner - reaches all those parts that others never seem to get to. 

I’m yer regular clean up gal. You name and I’ve cleaned it. I’ve spent a life time either in the crap or cleaning it up! I used to hide in the wardrobe as a little girl trying to escape the wrath of my mother because once again I’d wet the bed. No one asked why it happened and doc said “she’s just lazy!” Later in life it was diagnosed as sheer panic, fear and fright of my mother’s alcoholism and violence. So someone else cleared up my crap when I was less than 5 and I got beaten for it. 

Then later I cleared up other people’s crap for them. I’d learn you see from my own experience not to clean it up unless one is asked to. No one wants to lose their dignity to some busy body. So then I learned to assist them to clean their own crap up, whilst I continued to clean my own up. 

I was always handy though with the All Purpose tho. I didn’t go to the boy scouts for nothing!!! Ha ha ha. Always be prepared. Then time came when I had to clean up more crap and it was my choice. Sick and feeble, emptying colostomies and bottles of urine, washing dirty nightwear and sheets as if it was all very normal. Like one of those ladies on the adverts - you whizz thought it all and then there is a sparkle which goes “zing!” Then of course there was the continence pads which had to be purchased for comfort and dignity of one person who couldn’t walk anymore. Then toilet rolls and elephant bog rolls were absolutely necessary to cover all eventualities. E45 cream for painful legs and feet and hands and any other part of the body sore. Then came crushing agony and crying and nightmares. Loss is blackness. Get out the All Purpose that’ll sort it. Then later I was back to helping others to clean up their crap again. It seem right I didn’t mind one bit. After all, a life time of doing it had taught me a lot about what is good to do. If you find that then stick to it I said to myself. People’s crap came in all shapes and sizes with degrees of torment thrown in. Whilst I was helping those with crap in their lives and how they could clean their own up a new product came onto the market. Air Freshner Spray. That’d work I thought.  Purchasing this new fangled Air spray helped those with crap to feel better and they like the smell. I had a whole variety: Vanilla, Lavender, Citrus, and even apple. Different ones for different occasions and different people. After all no- one is the same and all like different smells. I also bought some that had manly smells. Had to cater for all-comers. If you get my drift. I was told to get rid of all those people with crap in their lives as they should get on with it themselves. I said, if I don’t help them they will be with it forever. 

No. they said, “Tell them to have a bath. That's all they need one bath and it’ll be gone!” I thought it was a stupid idea so I carried on helping people with all the crap and helping them to see how they could learn to clean it up themselves and feel better that they did it all for themselves. Most learned the art and came up smiling and smelling with a sweet aroma that they only could smell. So thirty years later I was back to cleaning up crap and vomit & pee and cleaning bed linen, clothing, carpets and loads of sweet smelling air freshener and of course my trusty All Purpose. 

I didn’t mind. he was worth the work and care and needed someone. He had no one, he was one who lived with us. Some of the others came and went, but he was here for 5 years. Ahh bless.

Now 6months on I’m still in the crap cleaning-up aisle. I’ve got a cupboard cram-packed with cleaning products. Loads of different types of crap cleaning, sweet aromas, toilet rolls of different shapes and sizes, continence pads, bandages, wipes, sponges, bleaches - loads of different smells now - and even catheters in all shapes and sizes. And last but not least my trusty All Purpose. I’ve got 6 different types for different needs and occasions. I expect till I’m transported off this mortal coil I will still be in the crap cleaning business. I don’t mind. I was asked to do it and I’ve just carried on. End (at last)

Annie

Rather think that i'm a yellow label item. Why? Because right now I find myself on that shelf. Labelled, stacked, stuffed in a line and not with the others. Maybe the label's ripped, the tin has a tiny dint,  packaging has torn, labelling is obviously wrong, the best by date is tomorrow....?

Maybe i've got a dint too; my face sometimes doesn't fit / clothing is a nightmare / as is the hairstyle so maybe I sometimes look wrong too, I'm usually all over the place, don't fit into a straightjacketed employment role...?

Right now? Right now i do feel on the yellow label shelf; but there is darn good company here, i'm not lonely! (just confused)

NO NAME

If life was a supermarket I would be on the top shelf of the cereal department because I have managed to climb out of the bottom shelves and avoided being trampled upon and crushed, but even so I know that cereal bids are not that strong and do not have much substance, so I know that there is still much work to do and I cannot take things for granted even when there is much to be grateful for

NO NAME

I would be on the seasonal goods as I sometimes am useful to people and colleagues and at other times I am just something useful at that time and not all the time. Sometimes I am no use at all. Wrong season maybe. 

MIKE

Supermarket shelf:  Eye-level - Granola/Muesli packet (organic smaller – posher –brand) but my box has been dropped on the floor and ripped a bit in transit, so am in danger of reaching my sell by date as I am ignored by those who can’t afford me and discarded by those who can, as I am not good to look at, so may be a risk of being defective inside as well as outside.  My faults are clearly visible, to everyone, but I still have a lot of goodness inside.

Mark

I see myself in the vegetable/fruit shelf. At the entrance of the supermarket, where everybody enters the market and can see me. I stand in the way a little bit.

But I´m not an exotic fruit. Also not too common like a potatoe. I´m not the basic food for people. I´m like a dessert. I´m an apple. 

I´m naturally homegrown and healthy food,  without any chemicals. 

The tree I grew on, is rooted on solid ground and I have a lot of good vitamins to provide. I taste good and fruitfull. Everyone can afford me. People are not forced to buy me in a supermarket, - they could pick me outside on the countryside either for free. 

Young people can spend their sparetime with me. I´m a youth-worker. Attending that YMCA-Youth-Work can be healthy for spirit, mind and body. It´s not obviously necessary for their lives. One can survive for a while, if you just eat junk-food or only potatoes. But life is more than eating potatoes! wink emoticon

Marc

Tucked in with the ever growing assortment of tea options, beside the ever hearty orange pekoe, you will find me......sitting and smiling with a warm cup of comfort in my hands. Nothing fancy.....just straight up strong tea.  With milk, and a little sweetener.

I was weaned on the stuff by a Grandma Mabel who always liked a good cup of strong tea.  I feel her presence almost every time I put that kettle on.  So.....chances are, you would see the two of us sitting up on the shelf by the teas sharing a moment and inviting you to join us. A sea of tea....with Mabel and me! (I'm laughing as I picture this!)

I listen best with a cup of tea in my hands.  I observe more acutely with a cup of tea to sip on.  I write more creatively when there is a cup of tea in my favourite dark blue cup sitting on my desk......a sip and a thought...... 

Tea is the calming elixir that allows me to find my emotional centre, that gifts me with those grace-filled moments of reflection, that offers respite from the chaos of the outer world, that always opens up a good conversation when shared.

Let me put the kettle on......... I will meet you in aisle Tea.  

Dana

That's a tricky one....but I'll go with my first instinct and say the shelf with the ready meals. A microwave meal is a short term solution to hunger, quick and easy but generally unsatisfying, thus reflecting my life. I'm good at quick easy answers, deferring problems and finding short term solutions but never tackling the real cause of them, like taking the time to make a home cooked meal.

Ian 

I would be the shelf in the candy aisle! Candy is one of my comfort foods and I hope I bring comfort to those I come in contact with. I am always indecisive about which candies I want to buy which is a bit of who I am ...a bit indecisive about certain things. The candy aisle is a happy aisle and full of colour!I need colour and happy in my life as lately I have felt blah...in a funk. I want to be colourful to my world but feel blah...am stressed and overwelmed with caring for my aging parents. I seem happy on the outside like M&Ms (Smarties) in the candy aisle but inside I am a fudgey mushy mess! But at least I am tasty and sweet! 

KARYNE

I think I am a tin of chick peas. And I think I'm located in the middle of the floor, you know, where they stable tins on top of each other in a sort of tin pyramid sculpture? I'd be the tin at the bottom and in the middle. I'd be a bit dented and the opening mechanism would be somewhat defective so I wouldn't be anyone's first choice. 

But when whoever finally bought me succeeded in opening me up I'd be as tasty, healthy and good for them as the rest of the tins of chick peas.

I could easily have said that I was a tin of paint or an easel or some drawing pencils because creativity is a big, big part of me. A bottle of black eyeliner even. But you can do alot with a tin of chick peas. And it's a constant natural thing. And you need protein as a part of your sustenance. I'd like to think that I am needed even though it may take a while to get to me.

Mone

I would be on the natural remedies shelf, because I contain nothing artificial and wish to bring relief to those who need it in a natural soothing way and always like to leave people feeling better than before they encountered me.

That was a tough one... if you'd asked what product it would have been easy! Marmite

Michaela

If life was a supermarket I'd be on a shelf just below eye level, within sight but yet hiding away. When I was younger I wanted to hide in a crowd, I never had the confidence to be myself. As I've grown older I've learnt to let myself be seen but it's still a conscious decision any time I meet a new group to bring myself into the open. 

Catriona

in terms of supermarket shelves, probably on a book shelf surrounded by paperbacks, some quite possibly trashy as I'm a complete book addict. E-books just don't cut it, there is something about the physicality of holding a book.
Does this mean I think of myself as a book - well that's a good question and I'm not sure of the answer.
Tony

I think I would be in the reduced section - I think I always have been and I’m settled here - although maybe not of my choosing to start with it’s a good place to be, I realise that now. Affordable and accessible, sometimes even a lifeline, there for those who can’t afford full cost food. What you see is what you get ~ nothing fancy, working at bringing down barriers - it’s a level playing field in the reduced section, we get all different food stuffs here and everyone loves a bargain! Sometimes I dream of being up there with the luxury goods with fancy labels but there’s far more activity and genuine life down here in this section. 

It’s actually quite good fun  :) 

Katie

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THANK YOU so so much for opening your book ......

My next Question will go out tomorrow on my www.pipwilson.com 

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