On Falling

I was walking down the stairs at the church the other day when I caught the heel of my high-heeled shoe in the hem of my pant leg.

The next half second felt like it lasted about 45 minutes.

Somehow, I landed on my feet, but on the landing about four stairs below where I had been heading. My whole body felt like it had been twisted, like none of my joints where in their right places.

And I ripped the hem of my pants.

I'm fine now, but it struck me how different the experience of an adult falling is from a child. Just the night before, I'd been babysitting three little ones, a baby and two toddlers. And the two toddlers got into hugging each other with a fair amount of verve and tumbled over backwards. Heads were bumped. Crying occurred. Then about 10 seconds later, it was over and forgotten as if nothing had happened and then were back to their active play.

Sigh.