Telling A Story

Last week, I took a break from my writing and did the more mundane things in life, like housework. A couple loads of laundry later and I was wrestling with my mattress, trying to put the fitted sheet back on the bed. I was at an awkward angle, and my shoulder let me know I'd tried to turn it in a way it was never meant to go. I relayed what had happened to one of my writing buddies and there was dead silence on the phone. Then she said, "That's it? You're a writer, Becky, and that's the best you could come up with? How about you were practicing your trapeze act and Hans didn't catch you properly?"

We shared a laugh about it, I put a heating pad on my shoulder, and took a couple days off from the gym. A few days later, I was back at the gym, going through the Easy Line weight circuit. When I got to the Fly machine, I couldn't go through the whole 90 seconds. My arm, not my shoulder, but the inside of my arm, began to hurt. The next day, I noticed a bit of a bruise on my arm, and I was experiencing pain. So, when the bruising got worse I went to the walk-in clinic. The nurse who took my vitals asked me what happened, so I told her the truth. When she didn't react, I told her the embellished version my friend had come up with and the nurse began laughing. When she finished her note taking, she stood and said "We'll get you back on that trapeze in no time!"

The diagnosis was a slightly torn bicep and the recommendation was to skip the weight circuit for a few days and then ease back into things. But the moral of the story is: When life throws you a setback, rewrite the script and find a way to laugh about it. You'll get back on your own trapeze faster.

So, what have you laughed about lately?