No More Traipsing - Just Straight Up Trippin'!

Oh, how lovely it was - my time of traipsing through lush meadows!  I have moved on to the level of tripping over hard sidewalks.  Now, granted, God's favor still shines upon me!  I am still and always will be His precious daughter, Child of the King.  I am not, however, his most graceful child.  This is a fact I have never disputed, and have, in fact, embraced.

One of my coworkers had a wonderful idea this afternoon!  "Let's go for a walk outside," she said.  "I'm in," I replied, slipping on my sneakers I had stashed in my closet for just this moment. Another colleague of ours joined us, and off we went - to walk the "Hendrick Trail."  It was a lovely afternoon - sun shining, birds chirping, women chatting.  I even noticed that I wasn't as out of breath as usual and could carry on a conversation while we walked! Progress!

Now, it just so happened that I was wearing a maxi skirt (which looked smashing with my hot pink tennies).  About halfway around the trail, I took note of the thousands of freshly fallen acorns on the sidewalk, which reminded me of a hilarious time when I twisted my ankle on one of those pesky little rascals outside the mall, ripping Todd's belt loop as I fell (I had my finger looped in it while we walked), and did a complete 180 as I fell, only to land in a King Tut position on the ground.  Seriously - straight as a board, arms crossed across my chest in an "X."  It struck me as funny today because I was wearing that very same skirt on the day of the acorn attack.  I giggled as I told my friends about the incident, pointing out the skirt and telling them how notorious I am for falling.

We continued to walk until we rounded the third corner of the trail, and one of the girls had to step into a doctor's office to pick up a prescription.  She told the other two of us to go ahead, and she would meet up with us.  So, we continued to walk.  We made it about 15 feet before the earth rumbled, the sidewalk split, and I was thrown to my face!  Maybe I am exaggerating a bit, but I tripped over a raised piece of that sidewalk and down I went!  It was one of those really ugly falls, too!  The kind where there is no way you are gonna recover, you just have to try to minimize the damage.  I caught myself first with both palms, but then I did some weird version of that dance called "the worm," scrubbing the sidewalk with my left brow and left shoulder…and then it was finally over.

I'm sure it was a sight to behold!  My friend, Kara, told me it was like I was falling in slow motion.  I felt like it would never end!  I'm sure there was skirt flying everywhere, and I feel certain my butt showed at some point.  Thankfully, I was wearing thick tights.  After I finally collected myself, Kara began to help me to my feet, and this sweet little man hobbled from across the street at a doctor's office to try to help.  Miraculously, my glasses were fine, no clothing was torn, none of my jewelry was harmed, and I did not pee my pants!  (See! God's favor…)  I did, however, end up with a nice knot and little gash beside my left eyebrow, a bruised and swollen left shoulder, sore hands, swollen left knee, stiffness all over, and a slightly bruised ego.  My biggest fear was that something internally may have been damaged after my surgery, but I think I'm ok.  There is a reason my parents did not consider "Grace" as my middle name.  But thankfully, God is grace, and He extends it to me freely!

We all walked back to the hospital together, unanimously deciding that black skirt has to go!  We had a really good belly laugh over the incident, and the others were already devising safety plans for our next walk.  As my director and I were filling out the forms to report the accident, one of the questions on hers asked something like, "Has the employee received any training on how to perform this task safely?"  Obviously NOT!  Maybe I need to attend Walking 101.  Nah!  I'll just keep things interesting!

I'm still enjoying the lush meadows!  I'm just learning to watch where I'm traipsing!

TTFN!