Free Falling (Apologies to Tom Petty)

You're descending a ladder when your attention is suddenly drawn elsewhere by an unexpected sound. In that instant you forget where you are at. You think you are on the bottom rung and your foot taking the next step is searching for the assumed solid ground. You release your grip on the side of the ladder while the foot still seeks the surface it knows is there. But your other foot is still actually on the second rung.

It's a strange sensation ..... that instant where you realize you are falling. Helpless. Like you are watching it all take place in slow-motion from ten feet away. Your foot finds the ground but it's too late to regain control. Somehow, like a cat, you've managed to go from falling backwards to landing on your hands and knees. The sudden impact with concrete shakes and rattles your world. (And tears a hole in the knee of your jeans.) You wonder for an instant if you can get up. You're sixty afterall. Are you not supposed to be in that stage of life where: "I've fallen and can't get up."? Apparently not yet it seems.

You're on all fours for several extended seconds it seems, waiting to see if the pain from a broken bone arrives. Reminded of the teenage years and playing football with friends. Hearing a loud snap as the play ended in a tackle. Knowing that someone had just broken a bone but who? It seemed like an eternity before the screaming ensued. Return to the present and all seems to be OK, spare a little (or much) embarrasment and a few scapes and bruises. All prior efforts at putting forth an image of dignity and grace have just been shot to hell. Officially a klutz now.

You're in the first aid room and it's asked if there were any witnesses. "I don't know. No one came rushing over" to help you up. Either there were no witnesses or no one cares. Gotta be one of those choices. Hours later, you're asked just how you managed to get up from the ground (like the person asking also thinks you're in that fallen and can't get up stage of life.) "Ummmmmm well I just got up." You might be old and grouchy and grizzled and gray but you can still take a fall.