The Alarm

I turned onto my left side, opened one bleary eye, and glanced at my alarm clock.  I was pleased to see I had awakened on my own at 7:00 a.m. with my alarm set for 7:30 a.m.  I rubbed the sleep out of both eyes, reached over and shut off the alarm to make sure I didn’t forget to do so once I was up. I stretched my body, and lay contented for a few minutes before I rolled out of bed. 

After I made the bed, I went to the bathroom, brushed my teeth, hung my towel across the top of the shower, placed the hairdryer on the sink, set out the hair spray, mousse and hair brush, and picked out my clothes to wear to my Women’s Life meeting that morning.

The water was cold, so I waited for it to get warm before I stepped into the shower.  Ahh, it felt so good!  I thanked the Lord for the nice hot shower, and prayed for the homeless deprived of such luxury.  My prayer was interrupted by a jarring sound—the sound of my alarm clock!  What?  Surely I was hearing things. But no, the angry sound of insistent decibels was unmistakable.  How was it possible?  I turned the alarm off before I got out of bed.  I was sure I did…didn’t I?  I questioned my memory.

A sudden thought struck me.  “Is God sounding the alarm for me to pray for someone?”  With one ear toward heaven, I asked Him, and prayed in the Spirit for certain individuals that came to mind.  I didn’t sense any urgency, and I wasn’t sure, but I prayed anyway.

After I prayed, I debated.  Should I turn off the shower and drip my way on tiptoe into the bedroom to silence the offender, or tell my brain to ignore the sound?  Should I try to rouse my husband at the computer in the office to come to my aid? No, he’d never hear me unless I gave myself a sore throat. Then there was the matter of our son’s bedroom on the lower level directly below our master bath.  He might think I was in mortal danger and come running if he heard me yell.  Perish that thought.  

The sound of an insistent alarm is kind of like hearing the persistent cry of a baby. 

I marshaled my thoughts.  What’s the hurry?  The clock isn’t going anywhere, and I am bigger than that clock.  I decided the clock would just have to wait until I was good and ready to exit the shower and get reasonably dry.

As warm water cascaded down my back, I did the stretch exercises for the lower back my chiropractor told me to do.  All of them.  I took time to squeegee the glass shower doors and towel-dried my hair, then tucked the towel around me, and stepped out of the shower, eager to be free at last from ten minutes of irritation.

I hurried to my nightstand and looked at the alarm button.  It was pushed to OFF.  What??  I didn’t know what to do except pick up the alarm to examine it.  When I did so, the alarm silenced.  Go figure.

Copyright © 2015 Elaine Beachy