Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Has a sandcastle ever gotten the best of you?

One evening that I was in Oregon, I decided to go for a run along the beach. I headed down to the beach and started running along the edge of the water. It was high tide, so there was only a thin line of damp sand between the waves and the really dry sand. I ran right along the edge of the water, using the excuse that the sand is the most firm there, while it was really just because it was most fun. Within the first couple minutes I came to a huge sandcastle. Just as I approached it, a big wave came up and around it so that I had to either wait or run around to my right on the really dry sand. I decided to wait since I didn't want to get my shoes sandy. After a couple seconds it looked like the water was only a half inch or so deep in front of the sandcastle and so I went for it.

It was precisely at this moment that I discovered where all the sand for the sandcastle had come from: there was a hole about two feet deep right in front of it that I managed to skillfully locate by leaping directly into it. My right shoe/leg got soaked and I got sand and water all over me, but I wasn't really cold, and had just started my run, so I just decided to keep going, running through the shallows splooshing and splashing. As I went along the whole turn of events struck me as absolutely hilarious, so I started laughing at myself as I went along. I felt like I had been on the discovery channel, "Little did this jogger know that moments ago, local children had just completed a clever trap." So I continued along the beach, sometimes on wet sand, sometimes splashing through a foot of water. I started passing some people and got quite a bit of enjoyment out of the strange looks I got as I ran through the waves with a big silly grin on my face.

1 comment:

Wendijoan said...

I enjoyed this experience with you as you described it! Last week I prepared to go lead a Bible study and did everything that I thought would give me a good external showing (dressed carefully, fixed my hair, carried my cool water bottle, etc.), but as I went out the door, I caught the strap of my nifty backpack on the door handle and was unexpectedly jerked backwards. My not-so-graceful exit made me laugh and kept me humble! Not a bad way to arrive at Bible study.