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DAVID BENTLEY'S WEEKLY COLUMN |
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DAMAGE ASSESSMENT
I'm a big guy. That's why I go for a 3 mile walk most mornings. So when I stepped off the edge of the road and into a pothole as an oncoming car approached, the resulting fall was not a pretty sight. Fortunately I had the good sense to crumple and roll rather than brace myself with hands and arms. In the final analysis, I had two small cuts, no bruises, a slightly damaged ego, and 3 days worth of sore muscles and stiff joints. When I realized that I was indeed falling and could not regain my footing, my brain seemed to allow my eyes to go into stop action mode. I could see the ground, then the sky, then the startled expression on my walking partner's face. I saw his hands reaching out to grab me as his feet shuffled to keep my swerving body from knocking him down, too. When I finally came to rest in the gravel at the edge of the road, I sat up with my legs stretched out in front of me. My partner extended his hand to pull me to my feet with the same speed that a parent swoops up a fallen toddler before he can decide whether or not to cry. I refused his hand, explaining that I needed a moment for damage assessment. After checking in with each part of my body, I let him help me up and made the final half block of our walk in my ripped jeans and dirt covered t-shirt. Several days later, I realized the lesson of my fall. Sometimes, when life trips us up, we need a few minutes to sit in our pain for a little damage assessment before getting up and continuing our journey. Our egos may be tarnished. We may suffer a few wounds. We may even need some assistance from others. However our journey does continue despite the unplanned delay.
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SAN JUAN ISLANDER © 2008 |
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