Sometimes when I’m on the internet I read something that is so amazing, clever, refreshing, heartbreaking, informative, special, memorable, adorable or some mixture of the lot that I think, “Thank god for the internet – bringing us all closer together.” Sometimes when I am talking to a loved one online that would be difficult to talk to offline, I am so so grateful for the technology that offers me just such a luxury.  The internet can be an amazing source of news, communication, information and – well, let’s face it – distractions. I am grateful for it.

But sometimes the distractions and the information, communication and clutter feel overwhelming to me. Sometimes the world feels a little too small and the sheer amount of sad news that you cannot help but trip over online is deafening. Sometimes there is so much bad news, so much drama (personal or political) that my soul feels numb to it. Like there is a limit to how much information my heart can take in before it shuts down and declares that it’s had enough.

It’s not that the news is any less sad than the other ten million sad stories – or that the drama is no less deserving of speculation and compassionate support. But some days I just cannot do it. I don’t want to hear it and I can not bear to add my own thoughts to these conversations – to voice my opinion at an ocean of people who may or may not agree with me that are all clamoring to have their voices heard. I’ve heard it all, some days. And some days there just doesn’t seem to be anything left to say.

Maybe tomorrow those voices will not sound so stale. That feeling of being underwater, watching the world tumble by from below will vanish and my heart will not balk at the notion of more. Maybe an hour from now I will read a story that truly resonates with me in a way that cannot be ignored and I’ll find myself back on a soap box with the rest of the world, impassioned and earnest and oblivious of how cliched it can all feel – maybe I’ll be able to silence that voice inside of me that keeps saying, “Haven’t we already read this one? Haven’t we played this game before?”

Maybe I’m just feeling a little off after being stuck at home for several days with a sprained foot – maybe the winter doldrums are just wreaking havoc on my normally sunny disposition. Maybe we should ignore this post and get back to our Farmvilles and Instagrams and the latest Crazy News Blurb that’s taking our Facebook feed by storm. You know the one.

I recently switched grocery stores. I had nothing against the store I was going to – they have a massive selection and their prices are stellar, but it’s also very crowded despite being open literally 24/7 and they only take cash or debit card. Not a big deal, but you know, there’s that. I still thought I was in love with my grocery store and it wasn’t until one random weekend when things changed.

We were driving past a grocery store in the next town over that I’d kept thinking about checking out and we had a bit of time to kill so I asked hubby to pull into their lot and see what the fuss was all about. The only thing I really knew about the store was that their commercials state that someone will bring your groceries to your car for you. I’m an able bodied momma and didn’t think that could be necessary but I was intrigued.

The store was like a breath of fresh air. Much smaller than the store I’ve been going to with prices that are affordable, if not as excellent as the store I’d been going to. Their selection was very good, but smaller than my current store. And yet… I kind of liked that. Sometimes it is overwhelming to walk through a bread aisle that has like 50 varieties to choose from. Does anyone really need 50 choices of bread of yogurt? Surely 10 is sufficient. I made mental notes as we walked through and found that we could definitely shop here and still get all of our favorite brands or something very similar.

So I decided to challenge myself to give this new store a shot, to get used to the layout and see if I’d still be happy with them a few weeks later. So far, the answer is a resounding yes. I love the smaller layout and found that less choices actually does make my life a bit easier. They still have more than enough variety for me but not to an overwhelming degree. I love that it is less crowded than my old grocery store and though I think I am spending a little more money it’s still within my budget. Plus, they really do walk the groceries out to my car each time. Is this necessary? Not at all – but the small act of generosity, mixed with a calmer shopping experience and friendlier employees makes going to the grocery store a little less stressful and with a three year old in tow, I’ll take any help I can get!

The other day I ran into our old grocery store to grab a few things and found myself overwhelmed by the crowd all over again. I’d sort of acclimated to the chaos of the store after shopping there regularly for a couple of years but now that I know what else is out there, it was off putting. The gigantic parking lot that was always crowded apart from a few times a day suddenly seemed ridiculous when the small lot of my new grocery store always has plenty of spots. No longer acclimated to their level of crazy, the difference was obvious.

So, this all has me thinking about that phrase too much of a good thing. It seems to be a seriously problem here in America where we have too much junk food, too much crap television to watch, too many things to spend our money on, too many activities to enroll our kids in. We are a society that always clamors for more, more, more but I think it would be very healthy for us all to do less, less, less. Maybe less variety would be very good for us.

Maybe the problem that American Idol is facing is not just poor judging choices but simply the reality that they are no longer the only fish in their pond and that America and the world is struggling to keep up with the fifteen singing competitions on television. Some may watch all of them with glee, but most people are going to choose one or the other at some point and the ratings for each show will reflect that. I think the problem with their ratings is that they still expect to match the ratings they saw when they were starting out on top.

Maybe the reason that so many people are facing financial troubles is because commercials and retailers are telling us that we need more when we don’t. When there is so much out there to buy, our choices don’t seem as excessive as they are because there is still so much out there that we haven’t bought yet. I know there are also more serious problems like unemployment and a high cost of living, but many of us would be able to save a lot more money if we simply spent less – myself included.

What do you think?

Do you ever find yourself suffering from too much of a good thing?