Try big life things and little life things to learn and grow

Grandpa always had a simple coffee and toast breakfast. Simplicity comes when you’ve figured out all the hard things in life.

I like talking to people that know more about life than I do. Not just big life things that give you headaches and make you feel like you are always one wrong choice away from trouble, but also small life things like choosing the best butter for your morning toast.

Most people older than me have the important life things figured out. They did that not by sitting down and writing a list of pros and the cons like our teachers tell us to do, but by living life. They tried something. It worked. It didn’t work. They knew what to do next.

People my age are afraid to try things. Afraid to try big and small things. And as they sit to weigh their options, life is passing by. I’ve witnessed teenagers tormented at movie concession stands thinking over what big box candy to purchase.

Their eyes switching back and forth, biting nails, and thoughts racing. I always go for the Reese’s Pieces because I figured that was the best complement to hot and buttery popcorn. I learned that by trying the others first.

That’s the best part of knowing what is best for you. Trying something. Taking a chance. Your best friend knows a lot about you but he doesn’t always know what’s best for you. Google isn’t always your best friend.

On Saturday mornings after waking up from a sleepover at grandpa’s house back in the 1990s, I remember going to the kitchen table and seeing everything work like clockwork. Grandma resembled a machine in the kitchen. One step this way, two steps that way. Everything was where it was supposed to be, the eggs, the beans, the potatoes. It looks like she didn’t have to think about anything. She had already been thinking for decades.

Grandpa was at the kitchen table, coffee and creamer in one hand, fly swatter in the other. The toast, the butter, the radio on, the big print Reader’s Digest. Every morning seemed the same. I just sat there and didn’t get in the way.

Nothing had to be figured out because it had already been figured out. When you are in your seventies, after growing up in the great depression and fighting for your country…