The Gazelle Antic

Somehow, this antic has turned into somewhat of a legend within our women's ministry at Penn Yan Bible Church.  You just never know what crazy thoughts may come racing across your mind that requires action!  The story begins a week or so before the "action".  I had decided it was time to find a regular job, instead of my self-employed, part-time interior painting jobs.  I started searching the help-wanted ads of the local papers and sent my resume into a position with a jewelry store in a nearby town.  I received a call for an interview and then the owner required that I take a characteristic test to determine if I was compatible for this type of business.  After answering random questions like, "What is your favorite color, day of the week", blah, blah, blah, there was the questions asking,  "If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?  What would your animal be doing?"  By this time, I'm thinking that this is such a waste of my time!  Who cares?  I skipped it and went on but eventually had to go back and answer these ridiculous questions.  I had no idea what to pick  but a nature video popped into my mind that my husband and his daughter were watching recently that had a gazelle in it and then I thought of a verse in the Bible that talks about a gazelle, too, so I chose that.  I, as a gazelle,  I would be gracefully running across a field.  I remembered smiling to myself about the graceful part because I am anything BUT graceful!  In fact, way back when I was a teenager, my friend's mom used to call me "Grace"  and not because I exhibited the beauty of that word!  That's another story!  So now, you have the background to this legend, keeping in mind that I shared my testing experience with no one but perhaps my husband. 

Our women's ministry holds an annual overnight retreat and it was held in a beautiful, finished basement of one of our church ladies.  About 11:00 pm, several of the ladies got their sleeping bags and air mattresses ready to settle down for a good night's sleep.  The rest of us were sitting around a circle, chatting and laughing and munching on goodies;  all the things girls at sleepovers do.   I happened to look over at all those going-to-sleep beauties and said, "What are they doing?  They can't go to sleep yet, this is a pajama party!"  With that, I jumped up and starting at the first one in line, bouncing across the end of the beds lined up along the wall.  One after another, the ladies popped up wondering what had just happened.  With the pounce on one air mattress, the cap popped off the air rushed out!  Oh my!  The screaming and laughter with tears that followed!   The next morning, one of the rudely awakened sleeping beauties was telling the story to a lady who had not spent the night and she said, "She was like a gazelle prancing over those beds!"  When I heard her say that, I yelled out, "You did not just say gazelle!"  Why in the world did that specific animal come to her mind, not even knowing that is what I struggled to come up on that silly test just that week before? " That is just what you looked like.", she said.  Hmmm….that certainly wasn't the picture I had in my mind of gracefully running across a field.  It was more like clumsily pouncing on unsuspecting victims of a soon to become legend.  Like I said in an earlier  post, crazy "happenings" just seem to happen to some people. Crazy thoughts just pop in and require action. 

                             (The only visual you will ever see!)  :)