Thinking back on it, I&8217;m pretty sure I looked lost as I made my way down the aisles, my face alternating between puzzled looks and squints at unfamiliar things.

While some of you gentlemen may think I&8217;m talking about buying some kind of a Valentine&8217;s gift, that&8217;s not it.

It wasn&8217;t one of those &8220;need to buy or else&8221; shopping ventures, but one of those &8220;must buy or starve trips.&8221;

I&8217;m referring to the exquisitely disconcerting and exciting challenge of learning the layout of a new grocery store.

Or in my case, re-learning a once familiar store.

Somewhere on the granola bar aisle I started chuckling a bit at the bizarre adventure unfolding in my head as I cruised across the shiny tile floors at Natchez Market.

The whole process is not unlike learning how to drive somewhere in an unfamiliar city, or maybe I should say a foreign city.

Starting down an aisle only to realize, &8220;wrong way.&8221;

Stop.

Back up.

&8220;Excuse me,&8221; I say to the woman behind me as I &8220;cut her off&8221; on the way to the green beans.

&8220;Sorry,&8221; I mutter, scraping buggies with an older gentleman.

The need for training wheels popped into my mind or, at the very least, a learner&8217;s permit.

As I pass the spaghetti sauce sanctuary, I realize that I&8217;m moving at the speed of someone three times my actual age.

Normally I walk quickly.

Today, I&8217;m crawling and looking up to the sky as I read the little directional &8220;road signs&8221; pointing me in the direction of the coffee and frozen foods.

At one point in my life this sputtering start to my shopping circuit might have raised my blood pressure and make my head hurt, which could have been dangerous because Lord only knows how long it might taken me to find the Nuprin nook.

Now, a little older, a little slower and a lot less be-haired, I&8217;ve found such situations amusingly educational.

Suddenly, my searching for familiar labels became an adventure into all of the new products unfolding before my eyes.

How in the world have I been able to live nearly 35 years of life on this crazy spinning world without knowing that Wasabi Peas exist?

Yet, now, I&8217;ll never be the same. For those of you who are uneducated in the ways of the Wasabi Peas imagine the little Hot Peanuts for sale at your local convenience store. Yes, that&8217;s them tucked between the BC Headache Powders and the Slim Jims.

Essentially, the peas are dried and coated with a horseradish powder. Sounds pretty gross actually, but they&8217;re fairly tasty. Pop a handful in your mouth and live the adventure.

Several aisles away as I strolled past the peanut butter, I saw it: a strange, small jar. I didn&8217;t know it at the time, but that jar was filled with the devil&8217;s own handiwork.

The name on the jar is Nutella. Open this Pandora&8217;s Box of goodness and sin at your own risk. Inside is a mixture of hazlenut and chocolate in a gooey spread.

Hours later, I woke up lying next to a half empty jar and half a box of cookies strewn about. OK, that&8217;s not true, it wasn&8217;t hours, but it didn&8217;t take long.

Sometimes getting in a situation that&8217;s out of one&8217;s comfort zone is a good thing. It makes you see the world in a different manner.

Whether it&8217;s the grocery store aisle or how blessed we are in our current situation.

How often have you found yourself suddenly awestruck after seeing how someone else is coping with big problems thrown their way?

Whether those problems are the loss of their good health, a job, a marriage, a loved one or any other of life&8217;s huge turning points, seeing those in someone else&8217;s life often changes our own outlook.

Get out of your comfort zone once in a while, try a few Wasabi peas or some strange chocolate spread and really appreciate life for what it is: one little adventure after another.

Kevin Cooper

is associate publisher of The Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or by e-mail at

kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com

.