Warning: This post has almost nothing to do with faith, spirituality, God, or anything else religious.
Warning two: This could happen to you.
I was out in the back yard this evening, enjoying the warm weather (at last!). My husband had a small fire going in our fire pit, burning some of the sticks and leaves he had raked. The kids were in front, drawing with sidewalk chalk. Just another early evening in Suburbia.
My husband and I were “disagreeing” (read: arguing) about how to tend the fire in the pit. We didn’t share the same opinion. I think it ended in blaming each other for the fire going out. I decided I’d had enough and wanted to get the kids inside for their baths.
I didn’t see the rake.
Somehow, in the midst of everything else, the rake had either been abandoned or had fallen into exactly the right spot for me to step on it. It was like something in a cartoon. I stepped on the metal teeth, causing the handle to fly up and whack me square in the face. Honestly, I have no idea how it missed my glasses, my teeth, and most of my nose, but it did–catching me in the soft hollow just to the right of my nose.
Wow, that hurt.
Naturally, I swelled up like a balloon. My nose bled a little. I could already see the places where the ugly bruising will show up tomorrow. I could feel the pain radiating out from the point of impact. Great.
I called the doctor’s office, to find out if the on-call doctor thought I should have it x-rayed. Not surprisingly, her first reaction was to laugh when I explained what had happened. Once she had stopped long enough to breathe, she suggested that unless I was having a severe nosebleed, it probably wasn’t broken. She recommended that I wait until tomorrow and then call the office during normal business hours. If there was continued severe pain and swelling, they would advise me what to do.
After I calmed down, I realized two things. One, I am extremely thankful that the damage wasn’t worse and that I have such a wonderful family: my daughter brought me ice and made me a card, and my husband took care of everything to get the kids ready for bed; I am definitely feeling the love. Two, this really is very funny. Or at least, it would be, if it didn’t hurt so dang much.
