In my “about” link I promised that I would occasionally write short “can’t take me anywhere” posts. So, here you go… One cold, wintry night—which was actually just last May because we live in the mountains of Colorado—I was standing by a space heater in our garage talking with my husband while he worked on his dirt bike. I was wearing my long, down winter coat but still finding it hard to stay warm and huddled close to the space heater. Later that night we went to the Saturday night worship service at our church. Since we were running late, I was hoping we could make a subtle, quiet entrance. But the service had already started and the place was packed in the back, so the usher led us to seats all the way up to the second row. As I took my seat, still wearing my down coat, I quickly realized two women behind us were kind of glancing at me, then looking at each other as if to say, “did you see her?” Wondering why, I took a quick look at myself and was startled to see feathers all over the front of my coat and sweater. Cringing as I took off my coat, I examined the back of it, and saw hundreds of white and gray feathers covering the back of my coat—some were even floating into the air. Apparently I had gotten too close to the space heater earlier and it had burned a small hole in my down coat. My husband was looking amused, probably thinking, “yet another I-can’t-take-her-anywhere moment.” While trying to gather up feathers—those that had escaped and were drifting away and those still stuck on my coat and sweater—I began to quietly laugh. You know the kind of laughter that only happens in church where you must make no sound, but your shoulders shake and you can’t stop? I realized that I must have looked like the crazy church lady who had plucked a chicken right before going to church that night. I imagined feathers flew behind me, leaving a trail down the aisle, as we marched late into church. For some reason Pig-Pen’s dramatic and messy entrances from the Peanuts cartoons came to mind and made me laugh even more. If you tend toward being clumsy or somewhat scattered at times, you have to have a sense of humor and laugh…
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