Many of you who read this blog know that I am prone to falling.  I could write a book about all the times and ways and places I’ve fallen down.  And maybe someday I will.

Recently my husband and my step-kids have been re-living a fall I had over 5 years ago.  

Re-living it because we have it on video.  

One of them reminded another one of them about it this last weekend and pretty soon it was “Sally, please!!! Can we see the video again?”

The fall happened on a regular Tuesday. 

My friend and colleague, Amy, and I were minding our business and walking back into school after picking up some lunch.  The halls were empty and we were steps away from the door to the counseling center when BAM! I went down like I had been shot. My legs were out from under me and I was flat on my back.  Amy was more than surprised.  Neither of us saw it coming. 

“What happened???” she asked, after helping me up.  

“I have no idea!”, I said. 

Looking behind us, all we could find was one small, squished, green grape on the tile floor.  

Slipping on that one small green grape must have been my downfall. 

I worked in a school with cameras – so I went to find the hall monitor, Joyce, and had her run the footage back so I could see the fall.  Sure enough, the camera caught it.  I recorded that grainy footage with my phone.  Evidence of why I would surely be a little more than sore the next day. 

Darren and I were dating at the time and I called him from school to tell him the story.  I was sore and embarrassed.  He was traveling home that night from one of his sales routes in another state and when I said goodbye to him during that call I’m sure my voice was shaky.  As much as the fall was pretty funny, it was also pretty painful.  

And it started some difficulties that eventually required surgery to fix. 

Those complications were, to me, at the time, just that – inconvenient complications.

Peggy Worthen, in a speech given in 2015, said, 

“When I think of detours and unexpected events, I am reminded of Highway 6 in Utah, a road with which I am very familiar. This stretch of highway is between the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon and my hometown, Price, Utah. It is a very beautiful, scenic canyon and one of my favorite drives. Occasionally rockslides can block lanes of traffic, and drivers have to adjust their travel in minor ways to accommodate this. Sometimes, however, there are even greater unplanned changes in the route.

In April 1983 a massive mountain slide completely covered the highway as well as the main line of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The slide blocked the flow of the Spanish Fork River, creating a natural dam and flooding the entire area. Because of this mountain slide, traffic had to be diverted for many months as a new section of highway was being built. Anyone who wanted to travel in that direction had to take a route that was twice as long. It was, indeed, very inconvenient. However, what resulted from this mountain slide was a four-lane highway that was much safer than the narrow two-lane highway that had existed before the mountain slide.

I have learned that life is somewhat like Highway 6. Even though life in general is beautiful and scenic, the road we travel will not always be an uneventful, direct course, even when we know where we are going. We have to learn to be flexible and to deal with the unexpected. Happily, I have also learned that if we pay attention, prepare for the unexpected, and learn not to panic when we are forced to take a longer detour or a different route, things will often work out better than we could have planned on our own.”

Later that night after my fall in the school hallway, my doorbell rang.  I didn’t want to answer it but I did.  

There was Darren.  I’m sure I cried when I saw him.  “What are you doing here?”, I asked.  

“I needed to see your eyes with my own eyes and know you’re ok.”  

I needed to see your eyes with my own eyes.  

What a blessing that inconvenient grape turned out to be. 

When I showed the video to ‘our’ kids again this weekend, amid their hysterical laughter, not one ounce of pain remained.  

There’s a good chance that small, green, inconvenient grape is one reason I now get to call those kids ‘ours’.  

I can’t wait to hear about the ways you are finding the blessings amid the ‘grapes’ of your own life.  And if you need help noticing them, I’m a good helper. We might even be able to find a video.