Nadine and I decided to confront the after Christmas crowds and busyness of the parking lots and go to the largest shopping malls for a couple of things that went on sale.  The number of people in the mall was staggering.  It was important to walk on the right side of the mall halls going and coming.  By the way, I didn’t realize that there is a right side to walk and a wrong side.  I was informed that walking on the left side is the wrong side.  Good information to have the next time I go to the mall.

We met our kids at the food court by the white pole.  Do you realize how many white poles there are in the food court?  At least 25 my last count.  We did finally find the white pole they were beside and shared some food with them before we split up and went with Carter to spend the cards he had gotten for Christmas.  What a deal–you buy one piece of clothing and get the second one free.  It was a gold mine for him.

After going into a few of her favorite stores, Nadine wanted to check out one last store that had 60% off the sale items so we had to go there and check out the fabulous deals.  The kids were in the store so we met them there after finding out where they were via the cell phone.  What a great person finder the cell phone turned out to be.  Victoria gave us the scoop on what a fantastic deal she got on a shirt, so we had to look for a deal for Nadine and sure enough we found one.  Unfortunately there were about 20-25 people in line so she got in line and I found a seat to wait for her to check out.

What happened next caused me to pause.  As she was waiting, a man (?) was standing in front of her so she got on her cell phone and was texting her daughter.  Periodically she would look up to see if the person in front of her was moving, but he (?) wasn’t so she continued to text.  After several minutes, a person in back of her asked if she was in line and she responded  that she was.  They then informed her that the line had moved and that she was in fact standing behind a mannequin man.  She was embarrassed and moved past the mannequin.  She wasn’t the only one as I caught a picture a few minutes later of a man who was standing behind the mannequin waiting before he realized it wasn’t moving.

I wonder how many other people had the same response during the day?  I wonder how many times we seem to be following something or someone who we think will give us guidance and lead us to our goal, only to find that what ever we were pursuing didn’t get us to our intended end.  As someone once said, “We climb the ladder of success only to find that when we reach the top, we find that our ladder was leaning on the wrong building.”

On this journey, a new year is coming up and we have the time to pause before the new year arrives to evaluate where our ladder is leaning, or who we are standing behind.  Periodic evaluation can save us hours, days, months, and even years of potentially pursuing the wrong  person or goal.  Reflection and evaluation is essential  to getting on the right road.