You would think I would have learned by now not to always be in such a hurry. Apparently I haven’t.

A few days before Christmas, I was wrapping presents in the basement. I had retrieved two canisters of chocolate covered raisins to wrap up for my husband Tim. Carrying one in each hand, I ran back down the stairs. Yeah, you read it right. I was running down the stairs. And since I was carrying the presents, I couldn’t hold on to the railing.

In my haste, I assumed I had reached the floor. I hadn’t. Being two steps away from it, I took my next step out onto nothing but thin air. I sailed the rest of the way down to the floor. The concrete floor where I landed hard on my right side with a loud “Splat!”

The first thing I noticed was the intense pain in my right ankle. As bad as it hurt, I thought it must have been broken. Then I became angry at myself. Yet again, I was in a hurry and not paying attention to where I was going or what was in front of me.

The realization of being alone in the house sunk in and my anger morphed into fear. What if I had to lay there for the next 3 hours until Tim came in from work?

Our dog Roxie came over and licked my face. Bless her little doggie heart. I wondered if she sensed my fear and pain. Too bad I hadn’t trained her to retrieve the phone on the other side of the room.

Since I had no intention of lying there for hours, I knew I would have to get to the phone to call my mom for help. I envisioned dragging myself across the room to it. Then I would have to drag myself over to the door and unlock so she could get in.

To be honest, I really didn’t want to do that either. So I lay there for a few minutes waiting for the pain to subside. After it did, I gently rolled my ankle from side to side. Next I flexed my toes. Slowly, I pulled myself up and stood. I breathed a sigh of relief, thanked the Lord I was okay, and proceeded to go about my wrapping.

Again, that was not the best thing for me to do. My ankle began to hurt worse. At that point, I hobbled upstairs and propped my right foot up with the phone by my side.
It gets better. My husband came home from work very sick with a virus. If I had been still been lying on the floor, he would have needed to call an ambulance for me.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7-9 (KJV)

I had reaped from my own poor choices and I had nobody to blame for my fall but myself. In fact, as hard as I hit, I knew the Lord had protected me from it being worse. For instance, I could have had several broken bones, a concussion, or I could have had some teeth knocked out.

By the way, if you know anybody who lives by themselves, it doesn’t hurt to check on them every day. Trust me, it’s a horrible feeling to be in so much pain and to feel helpless.

That evening, our sweet daughter Sara brought us some food. She said, “Mom, for Christmas I am going to get you a Life Alert.” To which I whole heartedly agreed. But the more I mull it over, I think I need to keep a small parachute on my back. Each time I find myself airborne, all I have to do is pull the cord.