Undignified

I hope I have solved my sunshade on the kayak problem. I hope to try it out today if the weather cooperates. Yesterday I received three different umbrella hats in the mail. They are ridiculously cheap, hence the order for three, so all my kayak guests can be so fashionably and sun-safely adorned. One is a camo design, and flares out three full feet. I cannot walk through doors, but that shouldn't be a problem while kayaking.

My family is concerned that my teenage daughter might be embarrassed by kayaking with her mother in an umbrella hat.
"I'm past that," said Asherel in response.

I bought 5 bales of pine straw to put in the front "garden" (some people refer to this area as a tangled mess of weeds, but I find "garden" much more optimistic.) but as soon as we pulled in the driveway, the skies unleashed torrential rain.
"Oh dear," I moaned, "I so wanted to lay out the pine straw!"
"You could still do that," reminded Asherel, "You could wear your umbrella hat."
That's right! I could...but I didn't as the rain and wind was so severe and there was thunder. I think the umbrella hat could act as a lightning rod. It certainly will be a lightning rod for ridicule, I suspect.

However, I am very excited about the potential advantages the umbrella hat will afford, not the least of which will be avoiding melanoma. As my cousin pointed out, it could double as a kayak sail in a pinch. And should I be marooned on the ocean in my kayak, it could be used as a rain catcher for much needed water. Like the all-purpose cracker, my umbrella hat could serve many needs.

Another sister is concerned that I am perpetuating the cycle of weirdness that my father began. She begged me, for the good of my daughter, to break the cycle now. I don't know what she expects me to do with three perfectly good umbrella hats. It would cost more to return them than it did to order them! (free shipping to me on top of it all- it is almost as though they were *trying* to get rid of the umbrella hats....)

I thought of David as he danced before the Lord, and how his wife Michal, was horrified. She told him how undignified it was for a King to dance with such abandon before the peons. I love his response, "I will be more undignified than this...."
This is a man who knew his priorities. Wild abandon of praise and exaltation before the Lord mattered far more than his dignity.

Kayaking in the glory of God's gorgeous creation is where I choose to do my undignified dance before the Lord...and I suspect, I will be more undignified than this too....

2 Samuel 6:16,20-22 (NIV)
As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart. [20] When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” [21] David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel---I will celebrate before the Lord. [22] I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”



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