I'm running yesterday morning, and I hit the streets just as the summer sun is trying to rise through the cloud cover. I notice a flurry of activity among the sparrows at the end of road - chirping, squawking, fluttering, tree jumping, etc. Embarrassingly, they caused me to change my route for fear of them dive bombing me on my way back through.
Part of the reason I love morning running is the quiet, the stillness. Finding none thus far, I continued on into the neighborhood down the street. To get there, I need to spend about 90 seconds running on a main (country) road. Not typically high traffic, but virtually no shoulder, which means I'm over in the grass to avoid a sideswipe.
I arrive in the neighborhood to find the birds there equally as concerned about whatever had them up in arms on my own road, but here there are also chipmunks and squirrels scurrying about. (I find it important to say that I literally dodged a chipmunk.) At this point I'm on the brink of being irritated. I'm finally getting clear of the activity only to find that I'm playing the same role to a few deer in a wooded area off to my right. They're probably thinking the same thing I was thinking about the birds; how annoying that you are disrupting my morning.
Anyway, I plod on and try to enjoy the morning sweat as the humidity is already one million percent. After I turn back on to the main road, I'm navigating the grass and make a split decision to run between a telephone pole and an electrical box. It was an awkward opening about three feet wide. The funny thing is, I had this "don't go that way" thought, but it didn't reach my feet in time to respond. I quickly found out why it would have benefited me to heed my own instincts. My left foot landed squarely in a hole and I went straight to the ground with a rolled ankle and crushed pride.
I have a friend who gets a real kick out of people falling, which makes her sound mean, but I promise it's not. She has wiped out more than a couple times and laughs at herself with equal enthusiasm (which just makes her look deranged when she's alone.) I kept chuckling thinking about how she wouldn't have been able to restrain herself if she'd seen me tumble in the grass. That thought led me to the most epic wipe out of all time, again starring yours truly.
Saw V or VI or whatever ridiculous number had just come out on Halloween and I went with my brother and a couple of friends, this gem included. I walked across the front row of a 100% packed movie theater and completely and totally wiped out; over nothing. I literally just tripped over myself. And I was carrying popcorn. And I didn't just trip, I fell to the ground... still holding my popcorn (priorities). It was pretty epic in the way of embarrassing moments in my life. One that everyone there, which I'm sure includes the people I didn't know, relive often when in need of a good laugh.
My daughter, bless her heart, seems to have received some of this gene. She was walking down the deck step (yes, just one) and she must have tripped. I say "must have" because I didn't actually see the fall. I just hear a desperate little "Mama!" come from that area, looked over, and saw nothing. Again, "Mama!" And then I see these little feet sticking up just over the top of the deck. Poor baby was completely inverted and looked as if she decided to slide down the step on her belly! Hilarious, though. (And she was unharmed, so it was okay to laugh, which I did.)
All this to say, when life (or a giant hole) knocks you down, I'd like to think you're in good company. And it always behooves us to laugh at ourselves, and others... when appropriate... with good intentions.
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