I love the beach, this beach.
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The
Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter
12/ Shenanigans.
Part
3 (Previous post contain the previous chapters.)
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Ten
years ago I spent nearly every weekend night at my aunt’s beach on the bay.
Some friends, and my sister, would go—we’d spend hours there. I love bonfires,
the dock and watching the water, the sand and stars...it is great.
They
had a trampoline that we’d rarely use and often just lie on while we watched
the stars. We’d spend a great deal of time laughing and being silly. There
would be a “normal” story that would escalate into something ridiculous during
the course of the evening. One of us would misunderstand a word and Dan would
just make stuff up to see if we were listening. Or Lisa would start assigning
people or places new names and titles. “I like to call it [insert made up term.]”
Or “That is what we will call a [insert made up name.]” We created our own
language.
There
were nights we’d arrived and there would be surprises. Like the time one of our
cousins left their remaining unused fireworks in the ashes of the fire pit. We
lit a fire, like normal. It was dusk, so a little too dark to catch on to the
problem. Within minutes there were bottle rockets flying out of the pit in
different directions. Every few minutes, “Pop!” And something would fly out of
the pit at high speeds and in unpredictable directions. We make our way over to
the trampoline while the fire burned them away. Each new POP triggered awe and
laughter. There were so many!
As
the four of us hung out by the trampoline, we realized there was a meteor
shower. None of us realized that. Shooting stars kept streaking across the sky.
And I kept missing them.
“Oh
there’s another one,” Dan said.
“What!
Where?!” I missed it again. I think he may have lied about many of them.
It
got to the point the night was so ridiculous that the group couldn’t stop
laughing. It is quiet out there. My aunt was at the neighboring property. They
could hear us and were laughing at us. She walked over and said, “It is nice
you can have that much fun without drinking. We’ve been listening to you laugh
over there.” This made it worse.
Dan
would sometimes commit to a tall tale to see how long he could make it last.
One night he decided that there was an island in the bay. The island kept
moving. The girls didn’t pay close attention; we knew it was never there
before.
“Dan!
Islands don’t move!”
But
the best night of all was the night Dan kept moving Beth’s chair. Beth went to
sit down and as she did, Dan moved her chair back ever so slightly. He was trying
to get her to tip over into the sand as she sat. Out of her peripheral vision
she caught him. She put her chair back. She proceeded to point to her temple
and said, “Steeeeeeeel trap!” Ridiculous. We all laughed and moved on, or so
she thought. I’m not even sure she sat down, but the scenario repeated…nearly
immediately, she went to sit, Dan moved her chair. This time, she fell right
over. Beth in the sand, giggling--then she got up and brushed off.
Dan
repeated, “Steeeeeeeel trap!”
The
next thing I knew: she took three steps and dove at Dan. I remember her feet in
the air, about the height of my head. She knocked him over! It was WWE at the
beach!
Cut
to the next scene. Beth and Dan both on their backs in the sand laughing like
fools. Lisa and I just stared with wide eyes and jaws gaped open. It took a few
minutes to process the reality. Beth never does unpredictable things. Beth is a
planner—this was so spontaneous. We were all shocked!
It
was the best shenanigan and lives on in infamy. “Steeeeeeeel trap!”
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God
wires us all with predispositions toward certain actions and not toward others.
It is interesting when we are overcome to do something that is not innately
what others expect.
Even
God surprises us sometimes. Maybe He moves our chair just a little and catches us off guard. I always hope that people can find room to laugh at
themselves, it is so much easier to live around people who can do that. There
is no point in pretending we are perfect—Jesus is the only one who could actually be that.
