The Reality of Our Reality!

One step from calamity.

It's kind of weird to write about what didn't, but could've, happened. I mean, what happened is what happened, what didn't happen, didn't happen, but I seemed so close to a catastrophic happening in the middle of my day, a painful reckoning with major consequences.

Not to be overly-dramatic.

Almost had a very unpleasant reality yesterday. What are the probabilities? Don't know. Seemed that I was precipitously close to catastrophe. The simplest, most mundane of situations: carrying my bicycle down the back stairs. A couple flights of steep, wooden stairs. Lugging my bicycle down in a hurry, thinking of other things. One false step, and my bicycle went crashing out of my grasp. I could feel my left ankle wobble, on the verge of locking. I was teetering. I have notoriously tricky ankles, I can't count the many times in my life where I have twisted an ankle. This all happened in a flash. No time to think. Luckily, I was wearing heavy Timberland boots. These boots have saved me so many times. One instant, suspended in time, this could have easily gone very ugly - twisted ankle, broken bones, lying in a heap at the bottom of the stairs. I could see that moment. I somehow righted myself, caught myself, so instead of crumbling, crashing down a flight of stairs, I pulled up in one piece. Safe. Sound. Shaken.

It was only in the moments afterwards when I realized how lucky I was to have dodged a bullet. No doubt. I could see in my mind's eye another reality rolling out before me. A crumpled form, serious damage to my body. Who knows? It didn't happen, but oh, so very close. Really. One step from calamity. That's the reality; any time. No sense in worrying. But that is the reality of our reality.