Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Those "faux pas" moments in life....

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Quickly - think of your most embarrassing moment.  What is the first thought that comes to your mind?  Please tell me that we all have those moments in our lives where we want to climb under the nearest chair or dig a hole to hide in, right?  I'm sure if my kids could share with you they would tell you things that would make you fall over with laughter.  No doubt about it, I'm a faux pas waiting to happen!  As a younger person (I don't say "child" because I'm sure I had a tough time with this in my 20's too) I would often feel like no one would ever forget my embarrassing moment, or that I would just die from the embarrassment....but as I've matured (let's face it, I'm passing the mid-40 mark very soon!) one of the best lessons I've learned is to just laugh at myself.  Truthfully I was probably an embarrassment to my parents long before I learned to be embarrassed for myself!  When I was very young my parents had company over for dinner one evening... the pastor and his wife.  Sometime before or after dinner (that part I don't remember) I took it upon myself to show them my skills as a frog and proceeded to stoop down and start leaping like a frog... but better, it came with sound effects.  Leap... ribbit....leap....ribbit... on and on.  Seriously... on and on.  I simply would not stop!  I can only imagine my parents wanted to stuff me in a hole somewhere!  But no problem... it was only the beginning of the embarrassing moments I would endure.  When I was around 14 or 15 my family was on vacation at Myrtle Beach.  We were staying in a 2-story rented beach house.  We had the upper level - and there was another family on the lower level.  There was a girl about my age in the lower level and she and I became friends right away (we even remained pen pals for a year or two after that)... but the part that sticks in my head the most was her uncle.  He was way too old for me, but boy, did I have a crush on him!  My friend and I would take numerous walks on the beach every day, and of course if her uncle came out I would suggest that we walk with him (lucky guy - you KNOW he really wanted to be at the beach with two 14/15-yr-olds tagging along everywhere!)  Well, this one particular afternoon we took a walk with him down to the pier and then out to the end of the pier.  We were walking and he was talking and I was hanging on his every word, staring into his eyes with my complete attention... and then BAM - I was laying straight across the top of a trash can!  Just as straight as a board laying across that trash can!  I can remember wishing that the earth would open and swallow me up - but oh, NO - he was there saying "are you ok... let me help you!" and my friend was laughing herself silly!  After that my "crush" came to an end because I felt like such an idiot around him.  Ugh... sadly that was only the beginning of the embarrassing situations I would come upon in life.   Life is full of so many of these situations.  Embarrassments, hurts, excitements, heart-breaks, broken dreams...but they are exactly that - moments.  They pass.  And life may be different after some of those moments...but most often we get to choose whether we will grow from the experience and become stronger, or whether we will let it tear us down.  It's an important lesson to learn that we really don't want a moment to define us... but it's also important to remember that a bad choice in a moment can have a consequence that can last a lifetime or change your life forever.  That's much worse than an embarrassing moment.  

Now that I'm into the mature-40's I really can't tell you that I have fewer embarrassing moments than I did when I was younger.  Sometimes they are just a bit more embarrassing.  Here's my last "share" and then I'd love to hear about some of your embarrassing moments!   

.....A few years ago we had to have some major work done in our house.  At that time two of my kids were still living at home.  I believe my daughter may have been a Senior in high school - so my middle son would have been in his first year of college.  Texting was still a newer thing for me, but it was a great way to stay in touch with the kids, so I was willing to learn anything if it kept me closer to them.  One night during all of this work going on in our house I was getting ready for bed and it was really late - so I texted my son (who was still up) and said "honey, you need to get to bed.  I love you!" (something thereabouts) and then I went to bed.  The next morning I had a text from the guy who was doing some work in my kitchen "I think this was meant for someone else" and then I saw that I had sent HIM that text message - NOT my son!!  What can I say??  I still think his wife doesn't care much for me - and I'm still too embarrassed to say "oh my goodness - I was NOT telling your husband I loved him!!"  

Ok -- so now YOU share with me!!  Come on.... I'm NOT the only one who has these faux pas "moments"!!