Walking along Ocean Beach today, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking and caught the edge of my sneaker on the lip of an asphalt cliff. BAM!! My ankle gave out, I was flattened, my camera, phone and change flew out of my purse, and I just layed there with my cheek against the cold asphalt with pain signals and chemicals exploding through my body like a screaming orgasm.

But instead of doing what I did the last time that happened (get up and run limping through the pain back to my car), I just took some deep breaths, slowly sat up, and just sat there until the throbbing had all but disappeared (about 15 minutes or so) and just watched the waves come in and the birds fly by. I think there is a lesson there, and I do think I handled it more effectively than the last time that happened, when afterward it swelled like a softball and I couldn’t walk without a limp for 2 weeks.

Let’s hope that slowing down and not always having to go to the next beach without paying attention to where I’m at, was a lesson learned.