It's tough to be shy!

Years ago, a group of my friends and I would get together on Friday and Saturday nights.  This was usually at a local small town bar.  I call these my bar days, even though I was the strange character usually drinking ice water.  One of my friends would bring his guitar and another would bring his banjo.  The one with the guitar could really sing as well as play. 

I was in my early twenty’s, at that time, and extremely shy.  One evening, the guitar player was singing Leaving on a Jet Plane.  He said he didn’t know the second and third verses and wondered if anyone else did.  I said, yes, I knew them.  He wanted me to sing as he played.  I couldn’t.  Even though I loved singing, I was so shy I couldn’t even tell him what the words were, much less sing!

He was sitting on the bar stool right beside me, but still I couldn’t tell him.  I was so embarrassed. Why couldn’t I have kept my mouth shut about knowing the lyrics?  No one would ever have known.  All would have been well.  But no, not me!  I had to open my big mouth. 

It seemed like an eternity, although I’m sure it wasn’t more that a minute or so, he kept asking me to tell him the words.  He finally realized I wasn’t going to be able to share the words, as I sat there wanting to disappear down through the floor. 

Little did he and I know, at that time, about twenty years later, we would find ourselves in a volunteer organization, sitting side by side at a retreat.  He was playing his guitar and singing, Leaving on a Jet Plane, once again.  This time, however, I was able to sing along!