Don’t wear your raincoat in the shower.

The next Mini-Maxim in the series…

3. Don’t wear your raincoat in the shower.

During the Great Missouri Snow Storm in January of 1982, I had the privilege of going to the Ozarks with my father-in-law Roy to visit my brother-in-law Craig and his friend Sid.  They had rented a two-room hunting cabin with a wood burning stove and no running water.  It rested on a beautiful hill overlooking the Osage river and the Saline creek, just outside of a small town known as Mary’s Home.

Craig and Sid were both ardent woodsmen and hunters who lived off the land or what ever they could dig up or find.  Craig and Sid took us hiking and hunting for small game through snow-covered and flooded corn fields and then challenged us to describe what we had observed: trees, plants, birds, wildlife and anything else we may have walked on.  Invariably, we hadn’t seen a quarter as much as they had, nor half enough to satisfy them.

“Creation is all around us,” Craig would cry, waving his arms in vast inclusive circles.  “But you’re keeping it out.  Don’t be a buttoned-up person!  Stop wearing your raincoat in the shower!”

I’ve never forgotten the ludicrous image of a person standing in a shower bath with a raincoat buttoned up to his chin.  It was a memorable image that opened up my eyes.

The best way to discard that raincoat, I’ve found is to expose yourself to new experiences.  it’s routine that dulls the eye and deadens the ear; novelty sharpens both.  So if you want a heightened sense of fun, of excitement, of expectancy in your life, don’t be a buttoned-up person.  Get rid of that raincoat and let creation in!