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Every Little Thing by April Jeppson

I know that I’m influenced by color, so if the palette speaks to me, it will find its way into my shopping cart. The last time I went into a make-up store, I saw a blush in the most amazingly bright pink. I wasn’t sure if it would look good with my skin tone, but by the end of my thought process, it didn’t really matter. I had to have it. All $7.99 of it.

Did I need another blush? Sure didn’t. I eagerly took it out of the package the moment I got into my car so that I could try it on. Is it better in color or quality than the blush I normally wear? Probably not. Do I wear it every day? You better believe I do. It still makes me happy every morning when I open the case to put it on.

I’m at that wonderful age where sometimes I just wake up at 2 a.m. and can’t fall back asleep. On nights like these, you can find me scrolling through the web pages of my favorite stores. At any moment I have a few items just sitting in my online cart. I may or may not ever buy them, but it feels nice that they are sitting there, waiting for me.

On one such night I came across these gorgeous magenta sneakers. I may have actually gasped when I saw them. I’m on this site almost weekly, how come I never noticed them before? I instantly added them to my cart. I even thought about purchasing them that night, but they were still full price, so I wanted to wait. I’ve learned that sometimes 2 a.m. April is not as fiscally minded as 2 p.m. April, so I like to give myself a day or two before making any larger purchases.

The next morning I awoke thinking about those shoes. By 10 a.m. I knew I had to have them, even if that meant paying full price. When I went to checkout, I was notified that my size was no longer available — they had sold out! I was overly dramatic and just as devastated as you can imagine I’d be.

Normally when I go back to one of my half-filled online shopping carts, I easily weed through the contents and remove a few items before I check out. If something has sold out, I take that as a sign that it wasn’t meant to be and I move on. However, this was different.

I searched online to see if there was another website that had my shoes. They were sold out everywhere. Almost a week had gone by, and these sneakers haunted me.

Although slightly angry that my favorite shoe store let me down, I found myself scrolling their pages at 2 a.m. once again. I went to see what was waiting in my cart, and saw my beautiful elusive tennies staring back at me. For fun, I tried to proceed to checkout, even though I knew my size was unavailable.

To my surprise, the website wanted to verify my shipping address and billing information. As I looked closer, my shoe, in my size, was still there! I have never purchased anything so fast in my life. I even checked my email for the confirmation, just to ensure it wasn’t a dream.

If there is something that makes you happy and you have the ability to pursue it, then you should. Maybe it’s creating the backyard garden of your dreams, learning how to play the guitar or buying a beautiful pair of shoes. When your day is filled with happy moments, that will undoubtedly spill out onto those you meet. How cool would the world be if more people were overflowing with happiness?

Albert Lean April Jeppson is a wife, mom, coach and encourager of dreams. Her column appears every Saturday.