“Sometimes, it’s just one thing after another. Sorry, it’s happened to you! Sometimes we’re just unlucky, but then we get lucky again.“- Laura.

Me: Laura, thanks for the thought; I do appreciate it. She wrote this after my collapse Friday and then my fall down the stairs Saturday and before the great maple collapse of today.

But the way I see it, I am nothing but lucky and have been fortunate through this wacky week. I’m told I’d be dead if I had gotten Covid two years ago. If I had fallen down the stairs and landed a few inches to the right, I’d be in the hospital or possibly crippled for months.

(The donkeys and sheep were delighted, green leaves and bark for days and months, right in their laps. Look for big bellies.)

If the maple tree had fallen ten feet to the north, it would have crashed through Maria’s quite fragile School House studio with her in it and probably a dog.

Our Jack-Of-All-Trades, the genial and competent Mike Conklin, came within minutes and said in his way, “sure, I can fix it,” and he’s going to shore up the flattened fence (more luck, no fence posts were crushed) and over the summer and Fall, chop up the limbs for firewood for next winter. No big deal.

And within an hour, Maria had put up a sturdy fence to keep in the dog area and out of the pasture and the woods. Having her with me is perhaps the luckiest thing of all.

At least some of my bank account will be saved.

Knowing Mike is pure luck. He’ll be here in the morning with a helper to start tidying up.

The donkeys and sheep get bored in the winter, they have been eating our Pole Barn. Now they will have the real stuff, just feet away, all winter. For them, miraculous luck.

And tomorrow, starting at 8:30 in my excellent nurse practitioner Amy’s office,  we’ll begin discovering what the hell is wrong with me and how we can cure it.  My doctors and Amy have fixed much more than this, and I’m healthier than ever. I know they will sort it out.

The pain in my back is wicked, but the pain area is slowly shrinking.

I’m not claiming the week was fun, I don’t hurt, I’m not tired, or I wasn’t shaken up when I looked at that tree.

But I will never claim I’m unlucky or feel sorry for myself. I am lucky to have had such a rich and interesting life, and more to come.

Life is full of hurts, illnesses, accidents, disappointments, and failures. If I accept the good, I must also accept the bad. It is not a shock to me when it happens; it is another chapter of life itself, another part of being alive. I believe in acceptance, even radical acceptance.

What would life be like if it was full only of happiness and success?

I don’t think I’ll ever know and I’m glad I won’t get to find out.