by Joanne Wiklund
Garden shows on BBC have come in handy to my psyche this past week. Sitting a lot, since I missed a step around my ottoman with one foot but not the other. The full-on left side landing on carpet shook me up. I’m better, but I always feel so old when I fall. Not if, when. Our disabled dad proved to me that the best thing a person could do when they fall down is to get up. He almost always did.
As we age, falling or the fear of falling is real. Physical therapists I’ve known work to teach you how to fall without damaging yourself. Fear alone can keep you home and make it even more likely that you will fall. My cell phone tracks my steps. I can’t do 10,000 steps a day, but any steps I take help me feel more confident about moving.
Lying on a cement sidewalk in Muscatine, Iowa once – I was face down. The son of the bike shop owner came to my rescue. He knelt down beside me and asked me quietly in my ear: “What can I do to help you?” I told him I thought I’d broken my knee. I couldn’t feel it at all. He and Hubby got me up and into the shop. It wasn’t broken, just covered with road rash. But I so appreciated that young man’s approach. He put me in charge of what was going to happen to me. Loved that.
So as you go to the garden, if you’re a person of any age, do as my little brother told me, as Dad used to tell him: “Slow down, pay attention.” Getting distracted can be dangerous to your health. If you fall, the only way to get better is to get up, if you can.
Ecclesiastes 14:10 “If one falls down, his friend can help him up.”
Psalms 145:14 “The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down.”
Psalms 145:18-19 “The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. 19. He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him, he also will hear their cry, and will save them.”