LESSONS LEARNED...AGAIN

[The following is a reprint of my blog of August 20, 2009.]

So yesterday morning, I’m up at 5:00, feed my little guy, Ruckus, get the leash on him to take him out, am pondering a world-changing thought, slip on the marble of my foyer, fall and hit my left temple on a table, and I know as I’m laying there, I’ve hurt my right ankle and have probably reinjured my bum right knee.

Long/short, I called a friend for help and she did not even hesitate…was practically at my place before I told her what the need was. She bundled me and Ruckus in her car, dropped me at the Virginia Hospital Center ER, took Ruckus home with her where she walked him, fed him, kept him happy, and waited for my call to come get me. I am so blessed. 

I’m now sitting here with a badly sprained ankle, wrapped, iced, with a four-footed cane at hand to get around on, nattering at myself because I absolutely cannot remember what my world-changing thought was.

So typical…the perfect opportunity to count my blessings, and I’m regretting that which I can’t even remember!

I choose to contemplate the many gifts I got yesterday. To have a friend so open to helping without question, to have an ER available to me where the people, the place, everything about it are simply wonderful, to only have a sprained ankle when it could so easily have been much worse.

I thought this morning as I journaled of a friend of my mother’s who lived alone in a big house on a hill and got along very well doing for herself. Early on, her friends would tell her that she should move to an apartment where there were other people around, or hire a live-in so she would have someone around “just in case”…and that’s when she was in her 50s! She lived to age 95, never moved from her house, never moved anyone in with her, and her friends would tell her she was just too independent…she was going to regret it. I am perfectly confident that she never did.

As I wrote, I thought to myself, if I had someone here with me, I would not have walked Ruckus at 5:30 this morning (very slowly but we walked), I would not be testing myself to see how much I can comfortably do…I’d be stretched out on my bed with pillows under my leg, sipping coffee, and issuing demands dressed up as requests. All of which would continue for way too long.

My Father knows my needs.

Thank You.