4 A Horrendous Beginning–Have a Blessed Day Anyway

Often traumatic things happen to you without your consent that take your by surprise and send your mind spiralling trying to recover from the experience and emotions. One thing you need to be mindful of is not allowing yourself to be held hostage by the experience. I am not saying you should pretend or evade what happened. I am saying DO NOT let it OWN you. It is easier said than done sure just have a blessed day anyway. Laugh defiantly, dare to find something to be grateful  for in that moment, in that day, month, year. Be proactive enough to find the lesson/lessons birthed out of the experience.

 

One thing I have learnt about life (and I am still learning/ever the student) is that there is always lessons to be learnt, whether or not you learn is exclusively a voluntary choice.  

An exclusively voluntary choice you may be saying and I’ll answer yes. Learning for the most part is a choice; it does not always happen by osmosis (although sometimes it does-that’s another topic of exploration at another time). Lessons are embedded in every moment; every experience, and interaction, many of which are designed specifically for us as pathways and guides should “we” choose to engage, to examine and to learn. Are you with me or did I lose you at CHOICE?  Ok stay with me don’t check out just yet, let me share my experience of how my yesterday began and ended.

 

The Beginning: Yesterday I work up at 7 am. My alarm didn’t go off however my internal clock did. Instead of dragging myself up and groaning about wanting five more minutes I gave quick thanks for seeing the birth of another day and got out of bed. I decided to wash and condition my hair as it was heavy with grease from a week of slicking and gelling. I set up my things for when I came out of the shower and proceeded to wash my hair. After the second shampoo I got the conditioner and liberally massaged it in, just then I felt a little at my heel. Just as I was about to move my heel I slipped. I felt myself falling. I knew I was going to hit the ground and hard. I started to pray, “God please don’t let me break any bones, please do not let me hit my head, please God I beg in Jesus name.” I hit the ground with a wallop. I landed on my elbows and a bit heavily on my left side. I did not hit my head. I did not break any bones. I called out to my eldest daughter, she came running. I laid there stunned mentally checking myself. The floor was wet and slippery. The shower curtain lay beneath me with pockets of water, the shower rod laid broken and the sockets that held them stuck out of the wall.

From the floor I surveyed the mess. I thanked God for breaking my fall and not allowing me to hit head or break any bones.  I got up slowly and tested my left foot before putting any major pressure on it. I shook out my hands feeling mentally for aches and pains. I moped up the floor and repaired as much as I could and got ready for work. In between my clean up my daughter was quarrelling, “Mom why you cleaning up, I’ll do it, get ready for work!”  I asked her, “What time is it?” “7:50 am why?” “Well I didn’t a lot time for falling,” I said. She just looked at me, shook her head and laughed saying, “you just crazy.” I knew I missed my 8:45 am bus because that guy (my friend) is always on time and shooting for the 9 am was a waste of time because that guy, is always late. My goal…to catch the my friend going in the opposite direction because I knew he would be faster than the 9 am guy.

 

Outside I texted my daughter “What time is the next bus?” 12 minutes, 9:10 am, I thought, ‘oh hell no I can’t wait for that fool I will be late!” With that thought in mind I walk North toward the bus stop and then crossed the street. As I reached halfway across street standing on the yellow line, my friend pull up in front of me. I finished crossing and got on the bus. I relayed what happened and he ask if I were ok. I said yes. No sooner had the words come out of my mouth when I started to choke. I was having a coughing fit. I couldn’t breathe and my air completely locked off. I jumped from my seat gasping for breath, one hand holding on and the other one I kept closing and opening my fists gasping. The driver stopped the bus. He looked at me and asked, “are you ok? Breathe, take it slow. Eventually after a few terrifying moments and some ‘father Jesus, God merciful father help me prayer,’ my throat opened up and I caught my breath. My eyes watered, my face wet from it. I sat down in the bus taking slow easy breaths and thought, ‘what a morning! First I fell out of the shower unceremoniously landing like a tsunami and then I almost choked to death from sucking the juices from my vitamin C in my mouth.

 

End of the day: By the end of the day I was beginning to feel the effects of my fall. My shoulders, my upper mid back, the back of my arms and my left bum cheek were aching. I was relaying my morning laughing to a couple of colleagues one a few moments earlier on the phone and the other as outside the hallway and they both had the same reaction one I could hear the other I could see with a death face expression, her mouth open with shock. They said, “my God what a morning, all that and you still came to work! You are crazy” I laughed.

 

I had a good day, I did not let the disastrous start color my whole day. Why you may ask. Well as I see and experience it, things could have been a heck of a lot worst. At home I could have opened my head on the floor. I could have died. I could have broken some major bones. On the bus I could have choked to death. Instead I was able to walk away from all that and still go to work. Why wouldn’t I have a good day? Why wouldn’t I be able to laugh at myself and the events of the morning and find a silver lining?

 

The silver lining is I lived! I breathe! I am mobile albeit a bit slow yet moving! I am alive! I can bitch all I want about how my day started and be morose all day or I can be thankful and know that I am blessed and go on with my day with a smile and a cheer to pass on. How you experience life beyond trauma is up to you (no one said it would be easy). You can’t undo the shit, it was what it was, just triumph from it however you can.

 

Just saying......

Have a blessed day anyway.

That being said, my ass still hurts. I am smiling though

The Sun always comes out
and.....Still I rise!

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