One flight of stairs... Distracted with an e-mail on the device in my left hand and a ceramic mug full of coffee with honey and milk in my right, my socked foot slid on the edge of the second top step and I took flight. Split seconds later the same foot found the wall at the base of the stairs halting my fast forward motion. My phone was still clenched tightly in my left hand, my favorite mug was now empty and I was drenched in coffee but fortunately nothing was broken. I sat there stunned looking through the creamy brown liquid dripping down from my hair into my glasses. I had just been thinking to myself a few days before how I should be careful and pay attention when traversing this nicely varnished wood stairway. My awareness then shifted from the puddle I was sitting in to the walls and banister that appeared to have been sprayed with muddy water. Such perfect decoration could not have occurred intentionally. It was Saturday at 9:45am and my plans for the day just changed in an instant.

First I had to clean up the mess. I don't always put honey in my coffee and the sticky situation would only worsen with time. Paper towels gracefully went from white to tan as they absorbed the incident and the eco-friendly spray cleaner left the area smelling fresh with a slight hint of greasy beans left behind. I peeled off cool soggy layers of dark clothing, drank some fresh black coffee from my refilled mug and then jumped in the shower. As the hot water hit my left arm I almost squealed it stung so bad. I didn't want to look so I went about washing my hair and biting my tongue. My ego was bruised and I knew my body probably was too. After the shower rinsed away the shock from the flight of stairs I thought about my plans for the day, took a deep breath and looked at my forearm. Ouch.

A beautiful raised red J written in friction above the swollen lump of skin that acted as a shock absorber on each step it had collided with. It could have been worse yet I wondered why this had just happened to me. I decided to take it easy the rest of my day and went out to soak up some Vitamin D. The sunshine felt good on all of my skin except that J spot and I relaxed into the moment. Life can change so rapidly, maybe this was a wake-up call for me? Maybe I just needed an excuse to slow down? Hopefully I'll remember next time to give myself permission to take it easy without injuring myself first?

I woke up this morning with a few more aches and pains in some strange places. Remembering my flight, bump, slide and the landing I decided to check out my backside in the mirror.  A perfectly purple goose egg on my left cheek just in time for Easter. I'm happy my body likes to use color therapy for healing and does it so quickly too. My arm has some nice green-blue hues behind the red J now too. Still I am amazed and very thankful that the human body is so resilient and ready to recover. I know it will take some time to feel 100% again but I think there's a reason this happened. I'm not sure exactly why yet but every time I bump my arm or sit down for the next week I'm sure going to think about it.