LISTENING FOR GOD'S VOICE

FALLING RIGHTEOUSLY

Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.

Psalm 34:19, 20

Anyone who has ever fallen, and that is most everyone from child to adult has probably had to do a double-take first asking him or herself, "What just happened?” or "Did that really happen to me?" Yes, it did and that is why you're on the floor or the ground. Sometimes, I have actually witnessed small children ages 2-5 question themselves about their incidents to the point of almost reenacting their falls all over again as they're so bewildered and a bit flustered regarding the whole thing.

Luckily and in most cases, people, especially children have totally recovered from roll-overs, side splits, flips, slips and the like. Possibly, they could have become performance artists flying through the air with the greatest of ease with not a single muscle contusion or broken bone to be found. However, as a person grows older, so do the risks increase with falls. I'm a witness to numerous experiences in various locations which resulted in many afflictions as the Lord delivered me out of them all minus any broken bones.

I'll never forget rolling down our basement steps as a young girl ages 3-6 and would continually, pick myself up, dust myself off and commence rolling again until I had had enough of the churning motion associated with it in my tummy and the tingling feeling all over my body. Talking about resilience, strength, and fun times, I had it! So, I felt very well prepared for plunges or the need to fall over later in life…so to speak. However, over time such illusions became a mixed bag of injuries and pain.

I've had the usual childhood falls from jump roping, relay races, and jumping from a moving swing. But then came adulthood; into my twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties as changes came in and to my body as I reflect. One time when I was seven months pregnant, our family cat challenged me by taking one of my fried chicken legs from off a plate on my kitchen countertop. Literally, it had me chasing her up the stairs in our duplex whereby, I stumbled up some steps but luckily had no medical mishap…just a few scrapes to my hand and an ailing leg.

Another time, I missed the top of a ledge of porch stairs being in a hurry to walk outdoors and tripped plummeting to the ground. This resulted in my wearing a sling on one arm and a leg boot or immobilizer because of muscle twisting and injury. Even still, I had a situation at my house in which upon my walking unto the top stair of my porch outdoors, slid all the way down sideways landing unto our concrete sidewalk as there was black ice there. With one leg bent underneath me and an arm behind me, I distinctly recall hitting every step with the full force of my body. Literally, I drug my whole body back up to the house using my rail. Thank God for the strength of my upper body. No one seen me, so could anyone help me? No, not at all!

I remember going to work that day and they wanted to take me to the emergency room, which I should have just gone on to the hospital to begin with. All for my so-called dedication to teaching, as the pain and suffering won over. It ended up that I had suffered multiple contusions over my body and had pulled hip and back muscles. I was out of work almost four days plus the weekend in recovery.

Another quirky kind of fall happened to my disfavor one day when I was at work teaching and decided to skip across a parking lot between curbs with about three of my students. Suddenly, I was miss-stepping upon the curb's sidewalk and instead, tripped and fell down upon my right shoulder. I knew something was amiss because I could barely move the arm. After about three months of physical therapy and ultrasound imaging, I found out that I had actually suffered a right shoulder rotator cuff tear far into the muscle. It required major surgery for tissue repair and over six weeks in full recovery and therapy to heal. Although no bones were broken, thank you Lord… I always felt like my arm was literally hanging by its’ ligaments and tendons. For months, it felt not totally connected somehow and ached precariously at the least movement.

Then there was the time in which I took my grandchildren to the bowling alley. They were ages 3, 7, and 8. We put our shoes on and walked over to the bowling lanes. The officials had placed a metal contraption in front to help the younger ones to hopefully roll the ball down the middle of the lane, not becoming gutter balls. All seemed well until a grandson's arm decided to throw a ball versus roll a ball toward the next lane. Watching, I decided that I needed to retrieve it so as no one might otherwise get hurt.

So, instead of my catching it, I essentially fell backwards after sliding on one of my legs which bent behind me and hit, the lane thigh first. Following, I found myself still sliding into the lane in all kinds of positions until three helpers came. I couldn't even stand up again without their assistance as they walked in the gutters I believe handing me a metal tool to hold unto to walk off the greased lane. Luckily, I recovered before leaving the alley and could actually bowl again with a minimum of pain. Later that evening and since then, I do have relapses of pain that radiate throughout the leg.