I Hate Pain and the Though of It

I have had my fair share of accidents, injuries, and near death experiences, but no experience stands out in my mind more than the time, many years back, that I was playing tag in the park with my siblings. My parents were both gone that Saturday afternoon doing various service and church related activities so we had to find a way to entertain ourselves and what better place to do that at than the park down the street. During the game I had the most brilliant idea to climb this really tall tree so that nobody could tag me, unless they worked extra hard to get me. I got up pretty high and was about to just chill in the tree when the branch I was on broke. Normally, with this tall of a tree, the resulting injuries of falling could have consisted of any of the following: broken bones, concussion, sprained back, or worse, a broken back, major trauma to the head, broken spine. Life about flashed before my eyes. But before I could majorly start screaming I landed on the branch a bit below me, which hurt like major heck but was not nearly as bad as falling all the way to the ground. The wounds I received were immensely easier to heal from.

I can not point out exactly when, but some years ago I developed a fear of....what do you think I have a fear of now???...not climbing nor of heights nor of trees, which would be the logical responses...but of getting back down from wherever I climb too. I have been known to get stuck on walls, on fences, and in trees. I fear falling. I did not develop this fear right after the incident. I was still young, stupid, and wanted to have fun. But it did eventually come and quite by surprise I must say.

Last night as I was lying in bed, this experience came to mind. For some reason, it nearly consumed me. I couldn't think about anything else and every few minutes my body would twitch at the thought of what could have happened, and all I could do to calm myself down was say a little pray of thanks for the tiny miracle that saved me from experiencing so much pain.

On a side note, Jon was soo tired last night he fell into a deep sleep tangled up with me. Usually we cuddle for a few minutes then separate so we can sleep. But for the first time ever that separation part didn't happen, until a bit later when I made him move because I was getting too hot. Anyways, everytime I twitched while thinking about the tree incident, his foot would twitch in response. It was funny but not exactly fun to have someones feet banging against mine.