July 7th, 2021. The day started out less than stellar. I hadn’t fallen asleep until around 1 the night before, and consequently, missed my 6:00 clock, which I had set to make breakfast in the morning. I jumped out of bed at almost 7, rushing to get breakfast made. Breakfast was a bit late. Instead of my usual peaceful, Reading-My-Bible-And-Drinking-Yummy-Hot-Tea-In-Perfect-Silence-Before-The-Family-Was-Up, it had turned into a Why-Didn’t-I-Hear-My-Alarm and a slightly stressful Dash-Around-And-Get-Breakfast-On-The-Table-Quick-as-I-Can kind of day.
However, I resolved to not let this morning get the better of me,and ruin my day. So I forgot about it, and moved on with my day, hoping it would get better. And it showed no signs of getting worse, until I went to the store for eggs early that afternoon. It was all well and great. Until. Until I finished checking out, and picked up the two large flats of eggs to carry to the car. However, the eggs seemed to have other ideas, and decided to stay behind if at all possible. In other words, about half of the eggs took a one way trip to the floor.
Oh wow, that was the most embarrassing moment I’d had in quite a while! Especially considering I was now holding up a line of about 7 people. I was extremely flustered, and didn’t know what to say. Thankfully, the boy running the cash register (a boy around 14, and our neighbor) was nice about it, and told me it was fine. I tried to say something, but every Spanish word I ever knew fled my mind, and I think something weird came out of my mouth. My sister Lizzie, who was with me, was very helpful indeed. “You’re as red as a beet, Rosy!” and “You’re making it worse, Rosy!” she said, while laughing under her breath. However, I was glad she was with me for support, and to share in my embarrassment.
One of the ladies in line said something to me that sounded like it was meant to be reassuring, however I couldn’t tell since it was in German. That of course, only made the situation seem worse, but I smiled through my red face. The boy running the cash register refilled the flat of eggs and gave it to us for free, which was kind. He told us everything was fine, and that we could go ahead a go – they would clean up the gigantic mess. I thanked him, and we left, but after I left I realized I had forgotten to even apologize. I decided to move to Scotland.
I carried the eggs extra carefully to the car, only managing to drop the keys once. When I got home, I dropped the groceries right outside our door, and the food spilled everywhere. I started crying, then laughing, then crying again. My dad came, and helped me clean everything up. The family laughed at my story, which of course I didn’t mind. (I’d rather they laugh than just about any other reaction they could give!)
“Do you know who’s going to know about this before too long?” Dad laughed. “The whole neighborhood!” It was true, as outsiders, Christians, and Americans, everything notable that we did was frequently talked about and shared throughout the community! Oh well, I would probably survive being known as the girl who dropped the eggs.
As I write this, it doesn’t sound half as traumatizing as it felt like at the time, but it was certainly very mortifying at the time! I spent the afternoon agonizing over what I had done, and passionately vowing never to buy, eat, or even look at eggs ever again, for the rest of my life and forevermore. Of course, that ended when I made scrambled eggs for supper that evening. 😁
I was only beginning to recover from my trauma when the next catastrophe entered my life.
It was that evening,right after church. Our neighbor (the same boy who ran the cash register earlier that morning when I dropped the eggs!) was taking care of a horse, and that evening he offered to let us ride for a bit. Of course, everyone was ecstatic, so we did. We each took turns riding around the yard a couple of times, and I went with my younger siblings. My dad and a few other men stood by watching and visiting. It was all going well, until the very last ride, which was my 9 year old sister Ruthie and I.
As the horse turned around, it suddenly decided to run, taking me very much by surprise. I reached back to make sure Ruthie, who was sitting behind me,didn’t fall off, meanwhile trying to calm the horse with the other hand. (For the record, I am far from a good horse rider, and have very little experience.) However all of my efforts were in vain, and in a fraction of a second, my sister and I were flying through the air. I’m pretty sure I broke my tailbone. It happened so quickly that I’m not even sure what happened and how. All I know is that we were on the horse, and then we were. I didn’t feel any pain when I hit the ground, and only thought about trying to roll Ruth and I away from the horses hoofs, so as not to get trampled. Although I’ve never had the experience, from what I’ve heard, being trampled is not a particularly pleasant experience. Thankfully the horse stopped right away when it lost it’s rider’s, and it wasn’t hard to calm him down.
The next thing I knew, my dad and several other people were running towards us, and I picked myself off the ground, and checked to see if my sister was hurt. Thankfully, it had just been raining, and the ground was soft, so neither of us were hurt badly.
That ended the horse riding for the night, and we went back inside. Only then, when the adrenaline wore off, did I start to feel quite sore. But that was ok, since it was nothing compared to what I would feel the next day!
I laughed thinking about how I must have looked, soaring through the air before hitting the ground. However, it was slightly mortifying as well. (Now I was definitely moving to Scotland!) My only comfort was that Dad said he didn’t think that anyone saw, except for the neighbor lady. I was glad that at least a tiny bit of the very small amount of dignity I had left was saved, not having everyone see my flying head over heels! 🤣
I guess that it was just my day for dropping things! (In front of large groups of people.) LOL!
I went to bed that night exhausted from my escapades, and glad that the day was over. So what’s the moral of the story? Well, not much, except that bad days will happen, and the important thing is how we respond to them.
After falling from the horse, I was tempted to worry about all the things that could have happened, such as being trampled or dragged by the horse, or hitting my head when I fell. However, I found it was much nicer to simply be aware of what could have happened, thank God that they didn’t happen and that He protected us, laugh, and move on.
After I dropped the eggs in the store and made a huge mess and held up a long line of people, I was tempted to sink into the depths of despair and move to Scotland forever. I mean, how embarrassing! But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I could learn from the situation, laugh, and move on with life, a very humbled person. Believe me, I will be carrying eggs much more carefully from now on!!! 😆
When I was chatting with my friend, Kyra, about my disastrous day, she reminded me of Philippians 3:13, which inspired me to not let these uncomfortable circumstances get me down, and to keep pressing on. “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are ahead.”
Another one of my favorite quotes that is great for bad days, is actually from Anne of Green Gables, and it says, “Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it… yet” I just love this!
And another – ”Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them.” This one definitely applied to me!
And that’s my story of calamity and mishap. I hope that it was somewhat entertaining, and that you learned something from my day! I’m feeling much better now, save my extremely sore body. I now know what it feels like to be able to get down, but not sure if I will be able to get back up again! 🤣
I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and that you are not having a day like I was on July 7th, 2021! 😂
Love,
Rosy 🌸
P.S. I’ve decided not to move to Scotland…. yet! 😉
