The indignity of falling

~ MaryG

I was determined to close all three rings on my Apple Watch yesterday, so I went out for a walk in the rain. I wore a baseball hat and a large LL Bean raincoat with the hood up. My peripheral vision may have been slightly impaired.

I was listening to music from my phone in my pocket, when I briefly looked at my watch to see how far I’d walked. I must have stepped on a piece of loose asphalt and turned my ankle.

I went down. All the way down. I landed on my left side and caught myself with both wrists. I was briefly laying on my side in the wet street (a quiet cul de sac).

My watch started beeping and tapping my wrist telling me that I’d fallen and asking if it should call for help. That part was actually nice. Someone cared! But I didn’t think anything was broken, so I hit the little X to decline.

What the fuck ankle! You can’t handle stepping on a little bump?? (This ankle has let me down before.) How many times have I implored my mother and others “watch your step, don’t fall”? Falling is the worst. It’s sudden. It’s stupid. You weren’t watching. Dumb.

A few days ago I voluntarily got down on the ground to take this photo of a mushroom along the side of the rail trail where I typically walk, which has no loose asphalt.

17 thoughts on “The indignity of falling”

  1. It is the worst lol 😂
    I fell last year in a parking lot, it was so embarrassing! I think it was spring and there were large puddles everywhere but i had my rubber boots on so proceeded to slosh right through this huge puddle instead of walking around it, but what i didn’t realize was there was a large frozen piece of ice at the bottom that I couldn’t see!
    It really brings you down a notch lol

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  4. First, I’m so sorry! Second, I so know what you mean! After my ACl surgery I had to walk with a cane for a while, and I was more humiliated than I should have been. We’re all going to do stuff like this, so why does it hurt our egos so much? Cause, it does!

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  6. I sometimes fall, thanks to the head injury trauma suffered four years ago. But, I have learned to fall the correct way, leaning into and rolling, and usually come out okay. It takes a bit of practice and helps if the grass is soft.

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