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Friday, November 16, 2012

Do You Smell That?

     I burned the muffins.....again. This time they weren't the least bit salvageable. These blueberry muffins resembled brownies when I was through with them.


     Yesterday was hectic and I was in a hurry. I was fasting so I could take a blood test, it was a half day at school, so I had to clock out in the middle of my shift at work and go pick up my kiddos. I had lots of food to chop and cleaning to do, and I was trying to get off early so I could get my blood drawn and eat. I was starving!

     Everything was going smoothly. I whipped up the muffins and threw them into the oven. They could bake while I was gone, and be done by the time I got back from picking up my kids. I ran out the door, with no opportunity to let my boss know to keep an eye on the muffins. But it didn't matter. Everything would be fine.

     By the time I got back to the kitchen, there was a terrible odor coming from the oven. It was smokey too. Thinking quickly, I cranked the oven knob to off, flung the oven doors and kitchen window open, flipped on the fan, and shut the doors to the kitchen. Dang! I had put the muffins on the wrong rack before I left. They were black. The kitchen cleared fairly quickly, but my idea that I could keep the smoke and stink to myself and away from the rest of the daycare was so wrong.

     I quickly dumped the black muffins in the trash, and mixed up more to redeem myself. Those were in the oven and I was chopping apples when my boss knocked on the kitchen door, peeked in and asked, "Amy, what are you doing? Are you hiding?" She laughed at my sorry attempt to make sure no one would know.

     "I thought I could keep the smell to myself," I replied.

     "Too late. You can't. Everyone knows." And she propped the kitchen door back open.

     I felt ridiculous for trying to keep my smoke and stench to myself, when I knew it would likely slither under the doors of the kitchen and permeate the daycare anyway. There was no holding onto my dignity in this situation, and it would have been more noble of me to just confess and apologize for stinking up the daycare.

     We do that, though, don't we? We think we can hide by shutting the doors to keep our odors to ourselves, and no one will know that anything is wrong. Whether it's something we shouldn't be doing or an unsavory life situation,  attempting to keep it to ourselves is futile. Those who know us well and even some who don't will be able to smell it, even if they can't pinpoint where it's coming from--better to confess and endure the consequences. In my case, harassment.

     "As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor." Ecclesiastes 10:1

     Have you ever tried to pull off a cover up?


photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ups/433742210/">ups2006</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/">cc</a>

2 comments:

  1. I attempt a cover up at least once every day! haha But it always seeps out just you like you said.

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  2. Funny that that's the natural thing to do, and the unnatural hard thing is to confess and deal with the consequences.

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