Everyday Things

I stepped out of bed and crossed the room. I wouldn’t disturb Maurie by using the lights in the hallway. My path was lit by the small glows from the alarm clock, the cordless phone, the smoke detector and the unexpected illumination from the distant kitchen. As I made my way down the passage in my nightie, I didn’t know it would be weeks before I slept in my own bed again.

The kitchen clock read ten minutes past midnight. I turned off the light and walked back through the dark house. No need to click the hall light switches, I’d followed this route many times; done it with my eyes shut. I made the turn into the toilet…or thought I did. Maybe my eyes were slightly closed, for in a moment I crashed into the bathroom wall and fell onto the ceramic floor tiles. So much for not disturbing my husband’s sleep.

‘Maurie, Maurie, Maurie’, I called. I don’t know how many times I repeated his name before he staggered out to investigate. He’d surely been in a deep sleep. And I couldn’t stand up.

Our daughter was staying overnight with her son. She’d heard my call to her father and thought she was dreaming, but soon realised her mistake.

Maurie rang for an ambulance. The paramedic asked me, ‘Did you hit your head when you fell? What day is it?’

‘Friday’, I answered, remembering the kitchen clock. ‘Tomorrow is the Bridal Shower for my grand-daughter’. As if he needed to know.

As I lay on the floor, I said to my daughter, ‘Ruth, please tell Tamara I’m sorry I won’t make it to her party’.

On the way to the hospital for the repair to my fractured hip, I thought about some other commitments I’d planned. I wanted to begin writing my own blog. And it was only another week before the final practice for our music CD, and then we’d make the recording. Now it would have to wait. How long would it be before I’d sit at the piano again and play the music the Lord had given to me?

Everyday Things

We take for granted

everyday things

sight, sound

flutter of wings

blue wrens by the window

fine legs like straws

keeping their bodies

upright.

Lord of Creation

I thought I knew

your wisdom

the way you support

my body, my spirit

forgive me

I took for granted

everyday things.

Lyn Thiele