Passionate Joy

How do you like the new addition to my face? It's a beauty, ain't it? Yea, that was a fun night last night! Nothing like a head-on collision with my gym floor (no pun intended!) Without going into the gory details, safe to say, spending the evening in the ER is not joyful. Nor is the anticipation of an ugly scar over my left eye doing it for me. Yea - not much joy in this disaster incident - you would think!

Well actualllllyyyyyy (you had to know that was coming!), I did catch some joy when all was stitched and done! You see, when my head connected with the floor last night, it scared the daylights out of me. No, I didn't lose consciousness, Mr. Cute ER Doctor. BUT - think Natasha Richardson! Remember her? The actress married to Liam Neeson who died from a head injury she sustained in a fall on the ski slopes? She's the one who declined medical help and died hours later because her brain swelled? Yea, HER! That was ALL that was running through my damaged? brain. So anyway, when my head hit the floor? The only thing I can imagine sounding WORSE than that smash, is if I was hearing my child's head hit a floor! It was bone jarring scary.

So what's the joy, you ask? The JOY, is that I am not laying in a hospital bed with a traumatic brain injury. The JOY, is that for all intents and purposes, I am completely fine, give or take a few stitches, scarring and some bruises. The JOY my friends, is that I am alive and whole and able to enJOY life. It is a beautiful fall day. I woke up this morning.My family is healthy, my friends are plentiful (as evidenced by the incredible number of calls, emails, jokes and texts I have received in the last 18 hours - YES funny friends, I don't need to buy a Frankenstein costume this year!), and that ER bill, for surely more than $2,000, is coming!!! And you know what? So WHAT! I woke up this morning - in my bed, listening to the sounds of my family, completely whole. Now THAT my friends - is JOY.