The Fall

Posted on by

I fell yesterday. Literally. I fell. Hard.

On the ceramic tiles at the entry to our building downtown.

I had gone out for a breath of fresh air and on my way back in, forgot that when wet, the tiles are slippery. All of a sudden, where once I was standing, my feet slipped out from under me and Kabang! I was lying on my left side on the ground.

It hurt.

Body and ego.

I glanced around to make sure no one saw me, dusted myself off and struggled to my feet.

Whew! Nothing broken. Just a bunch of sore spots that would, I was pretty sure, turn to bruises.

But as the day progressed my body became stiffer and stiffer. My head hurt and my elbow ached. I wanted to come home but couldn’t. I had a 4:30 deadline I could not miss. I had to get it done. With 2 minutes to spare I hit the SEND button on my email and the document was gone.

I could leave.

I came home, told C.C. my tale of woe and crawled into bed. He pampered me and let me rest. Took Beaumont for a walk and played with him in the rain while I lay in bed feeling sorry for myself.

My critter mind wanted to get busy citing the litany of sins I’d committed to make this happen. “Of all the stupid…”  “You should have been more careful.” “You weren’t paying attention.”

I told him to take a hike.

He did, but not until sliding in his favourite, “It could have been worse…”

Yes. It could have been worse. But even that statement is a trigger to my critter mind’s desire to make me feel less than and be other than, in the moment.

It is what it is. A fall.

I did not break any bones. I got some bruises and this morning, before I take Beaumont to the Vet for his final round of shots, I’ll stop at the Chiropractor’s for a quick adjustment. My neck and left shoulder are stiff. My elbow and hip are bruised.

And that’s it.

end of story.

No matter how much my critter mind would like to make it into something else. Some catastrophe averted. Some “OMG! What if…” where I am left lying on the ground, broken and battered, with no help in sight. 

That’s it. I fell. I got up. I carried on. It wasn’t “my fault”. It wasn’t the Universe teaching me a lesson. It wasn’t some macabre whim of fate stepping in to trip me up. 

The ground beneath my feet was slippery. I slipped and fell.

And this morning, a new day is dawning. Daybreak has edged its way over the horizon to cast a new light upon the world. 

A new day is born.

I have a lot to do today and an evening meeting with a community association.

Tomorrow, I’m off to coach at Choices where hearts will break open and in their breaking open blood will flow freely and minds will expand and possibility of what is possible when love runs freely will awaken the spirits of all those who chose to take what Choices calls, “The Adventure of a Lifetime”.

In their hearts breaking open, anything is possible. A broken heart is an open heart and an open heart is a loving heart.

Yesterday I fell. Anything was possible. 

What’s real is, today I am grateful for all the possibilities of my day, for all the gifts of this morning, and all the opportunities I step into when I surrender my fear of falling and fall in Love.

22 thoughts on “The Fall”

  2. I can’t LIKE this because my sweet Louise hurt herself! Sending healing prayers your way!
    I fel a couple of years ago. I have stupid weak ankles that I’ve known about even when I was a kid. I knew when I icesckated… who was I fooling, I’d never be the next Dorothy Hamill. It can be as small as a pebble that throws me off. I didn’t let it stop me back then. I still jumped hurdles when I was younger and so on. But as I grew older I knew that it just took stepping on a rug wrong, or a crack in the tile. And like you, usually I’d jump right up! But the few last falls left me with a mouthful of gravel one time, an arm that I never sought treatment but I know I did something to, cuz the whole thing almost turned entirely black and a knee that I can’t believe hasn’t said enough is enough! So I know how you are feeling this morning. And how it gets harder and harder to jump up as fast as you fell down!
    Funny how the older we get, the further down it feels the ground is!
    xoxo

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  3. Love this — so true! “Funny how the older we get, the further down it feels the ground is!”

    though I must tell you… I’m kinda congratulating myself on how well my body has responded — though the aches and pains are a tad annoying! 🙂 Hugs to you dear Di.

    Like

    Reply ↓

  4. reminds of that old saying that involves these words ‘may the road rise up to meet you’ … but I don’t think pratfalls were intended

    it’s nice to ‘bounce’ …. and glad you’ve not broken or re-sprained anything

    have a good week

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  6. Oh! Louise, I hope your elbow is feeling better and you are resting well.
    Falls are so unavoidable…you never know where it is waiting for us, to remind us of our brittle bones, of our bouncing spirit and the big ego!! They don’t care for our age, at least they don’t discriminate! ha ha!!

    Falls always ennoble us, add another feature to our personality. Nostalgia grips me right now and I can recollect many falls, one of which happened when I was getting down the stairs for a vacation and which was cancelled due to my swollen foot. it revealed the love of my hubby and little children who were more concerned about me and not the cancelled vacation. I learnt how loving relationships and persons who choose to be around us are more important than anything else.

    Thanks for sharing a passing thought with so much of value. Stay healthy and smile. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • Thanks Liz — Aside from feeling kind of awkward lying on the ground, the bumps and bruises will fade — and this moment will move into the next and the sun will continue to shine, even behind grey clouds. And through it all, life continues to provide amazing moments of awe and wonder. How perfect is that? 🙂 Hugs!

      Like

      Reply ↓

  11. Pingback: Pride: it cometh after the fall too | Dare boldly

  12. I didn’t want to press ‘like’ but I do like that you were able to quiet the critter. Hope you are feeling much better now, Louise. I understand all of where your mind went. Sometimes a fall is just a fall….and maybe a little reminder to be fully present in whatever activity we are engaged in. Much love ❤

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

Real conversations begin with your comments. Please share your thoughts.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.