Poor Ankle Deaton

I got distracted walking to my car last Thursday morning and missed a step. The next thing I knew, I wasn't looking at the lake or my landlord's car but at the food and drink on my clothes and myself sitting on the landing between flights of steps, wondering what had just happened.

At first I couldn't move my ankle and I thought to myself, "Uh oh. What do I do?" Then I realized that I had my phone in my hand so I'd be able to call or write for help if needed. Then I remembered the time when I was in 1st grade and my mom fell down the steps of our house in Tabor City and I remembered how I felt like her fall was my fault because she had gone upstairs to get my monogrammed turtle neck. I remembered how she'd broken her ankle and passed out and how the ambulance came to get her and how my clothes hadn't matched that day because I'd had to pick them out alone. Then I realized that I wasn't feeling great myself--that the pain must have shocked my system and made me feel nauseous. Then I remembered that I hadn't taken my medicine this morning and that I'd forgotten my lunch so it was probably a good thing that I'd need to go back upstairs to regroup and change clothes. Then I realized that I could move my ankle a bit and that it likely wasn't broken. Then I just sat there for a few minutes until I made myself get up, walk back upstairs, change clothes, and do everything I'd forgotten to do before the whole fiasco began.

Here were the thoughts of my infirmity:

1) I cannot imagine everything that goes through the head of an elderly person who slips and falls and doesn't have the secure knowledge that help can be reached. I feel as if I should go on a personal quest to provide life-alert bracelets for every senior citizen in this world!

2) I am grateful for truth and grace and for the light they shed and the freedom they provide from the guilt of the past. I really did think that my mom's broken ankle was my fault and I therefore carried around a lot of guilt for that accident in her life. Though I can't remember why she went upstairs that morning, it wasn't solely for my monogrammed turtle neck and even it had been my mom never thought to blame me for the fall.

3) Being fully mobile is truly a blessing, and sometimes I take it for granted. So for (normally) functioning arms and legs and sight and senses and ears and voice and thoughts...Thanks, God. May I not take the simplest pleasures and conveniences of life for granted, and may I always find a way to honor you and your creation with my life.