BLOGG # 105 FELLED BY A COMPOST PAIL

If you are living in Victoria or really anywhere in Canada you probably are familiar with the little plastic recycling pail with the biodegradable bag in which you place your compost. The trouble with this new addition is that it doesn't really fit in one's kitchen. It is always in the way and sometimes in sheer frustration one puts it on the floor which is what I did--and that is why I tripped over it and fell.We all are are aware we live with a thin thread connecting us to life and that it can snap off in an instant.Poets constantly remind us of that fact. However the snapping of this fine thread  we presume is usually caused by something dramatic-Terrorist bombing;caught in crossfire bullets etc-certainly I did. What I did not expect was the mundane method I chose. Somehow falling over a bucket lacked elan..  "how pathetic " my nurse said "Change the story, say you fell over a male stripper."  But the truth is all I did was kick the compost bucket and fell- fell like a bowling pin, bouncing and ricocheting around my tiny hallway  until twisting painfully I landed on the floor with a bad broken ankle. The amazing thing is not only did I "kick the bucket" literally but nearly kicked it metaphorically as was explained to me by my  exhausted anaesthetist and my handsome surgeon who said he aged ten years during my surgery.  The problem ,a, rare one, was because of my larynx clamping. My survival I owed to the skill of the anaesthetist. It is disconcerting to hear this explained to me the day after surgery as I felt hale and hearty and somehow it didn't feel real. However what did feel real was a little voice inside me that whispered :A reprieve Laurie -a second chance.  I am now in a rehab .center called LAP . I have yet to find out what that means. The best explanation is from our comedic male nurse who said it meant Los Angeles Police Force-well why not --My life in the past three weeks have been a roller coaster ride so Los Angeles police force sounds just fine.How do I feel about this? I don't know and am too busy recuperating  to care.I share my room with three other mates all in different stages of recovery. I am next to a wonderful huge window overlooking a garden. A delicate tree with lace like branches sparsely covered with autumn leaves ranging from gold to bronze flutter in the breezes. I have been gifted another autumn-my favourite season. Yesterday while I was watching the clouds scudding by a rainbow appeared . It arched across the the entire sky and filled my window, brilliantly lit with all the rainbow colours and I could swear I could see the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow. So how do I feel? Grateful.